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THE jLBOy 



AN ACCOUNT 

OP 




THE ABORIOINAL INHABITANTS 



THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA, 

AS GIVEN BY 
1 
VCOB BAEGERT, A GERMAN JESUIT MISSIONARY, WHO LIVED THERE SEVENTEEN 
'' YEARS DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE LAST CENTURY. 



.lANSLATED ASD ARRANGED TOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BY CHARLES RAU, OF NEW YORK CITY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



When, in 1767, by a decree of Charles III, all members of the order of the 
esuits were banished from Spain and the transatlantic provinces subject to that 
, ^alm, those Jesuits who superintended the missions established by the Spaniards 
. :K".e 1697 in Lower California were compelled to leave their Indian converts, and 
!•) transfer their spiritual authority to a number of friars of the Franciscan order. 
' )nc of the banished Jesuits, a German, who had spent seventeen years in the 
(Jalifornian peninsula, published, after his return to his native country, a book 
• hich contains a description of that remote part of the American continent, and 
-ives also quite a detailed account of its aboriginal inhabitants, with whom the 
■uthor had become thoroughly acquainted during the many years devoted to 
t leir conversion to Christianity. This book, which is now very scarce in 
(xcrmany, and, of course, still more so in this country, boars the title : Account 
of the American Peninsula of California ; loith a twofold Appendix of False 
Reports. Writtc7i hy a Priest of the Hocivty of Jesus, icho lircd there many 
jears past. Puhlished loith the Permission of my Superiors: Mannheim, 1773.* 
Modesty, or perhaps other motives, induced the author to remain anonymous, 
I'Ut with little success; for his name, which was Jacob Baegert, is sometimes 
■ let with in old catalogues, in connexion with the title of his book. That his 
•ome was on the Upper Rhine he states himself in the text, but further par- 
iculars relative to his private affairs, before or after his missionary labors in 
'Jalifornia, have not come to my knowledge. He does not even mention over 
'.t^hich of the fifteen missions existing at his time on the peninsula he presided, 
nut merely says that ho had lived in California under the twent} fifth degree, 
;,nd twelve leagues distant from the Pacific coast, opposite the little bay of St. 
lagdalen. On the map accompanying his work there are two missionary sta- 
ions marked under that latitude — the mission of St. Aloysius and that of the 

* NacLrichtcn Ton der Amerntaniscbeii Ilalbinsel Californien: mit einem zweyfaclien 
Liihan;^ Falscher Nachrichten. Gcschrieben von einctn Piiestcr der Gesellschaft Jcsu, 
/elcber lang darinn diese letztere Jabr gelebet bat. Mit Erlaubnuss der Oberen. Mann- 
leim, 1773. 



THE CALIFOENIAN PENINSULA. 353 

Seven Dolors, (Septem Dolorum,) of which the first named evidently was his 
place of residence. 

The work in question constitutes a small octavo volume of 358 pages, and is 
divided into three parts. The first division (of which I will give a short 
synopsis in this introduction) treats of the topography, physical geography, 
geology, and natural history of the peninsula; the second part gives an account 
of the inhabitants, and the third embraces a short but interesting history of the 
missions in Lower California. In the appendices to the work the author refutes 
certain exaggerated reports that had been published concerning the Californian 
peninsula, and he is particularly very severe upon Vcnegas' " Noticia de la 
California," (Madrid, 1757, 3 vols.,) a Avork which is also translated into the 
English, French, and German languages. He accuses the Spanish author of 
having given by far too favorable, and, in many instances, utterly false 
accounts of the country, its jn'oductions and inhabitants, Avhich is rather a 
noticeable circumstance, since Vcnegas is considered as an authority in matters 
relating to the ethnology of California. 

While reading the work of the German missionary, I was struck with the 
amount of ethnological information contained in it, especially in the second 
part, which is exclusively devoted to the aboriginal inhabitants, as stated 
before ; and upon conversing on the subject with some friends, members of the 
American Ethnological Society, they advised me to translate for publication if 
not the whole book, at least that part of it which relates to the native popula- 
tion, of which we know, comparatively, perhaps less than of any other portion 
of the indigenous race of North America. As there is a growing taste for the 
study of ethnology manifested in this country, and, consequently, a tendency 
prevailing to collect all materials illustrating the former condition of the Ameri- 
can aborigines in different parts of the continent, I complied with the request 
of my friends, and devoted my hours of leisure to the preparation of this little 
work, supposing that the account of a man who lived among those Californians 
a century ago, when their original state had been but little changed by inter- 
course with Europeans, might be an acceptable addition to our stock of 
ethnological knowledge. 

I have .to state, however, that the following pages are not a translation in 
the strict sense of the word, but a reproduction of the work only as fax as it 
refers to ethnological matters. The reasons which induced me thus to deviate 
from the usual course of a translator are obvioiis ; for even that portion of the 
text which treats of the native race contains many things that are not in the 
least connected with ethnology, the good father being somewhat garrulous and 
rather fond of moralizing and enlarging upon religious matters, as might be 
expected from one of his calling; and, although he places the natives of the 
peninsula exceedingly low in the scale of human development, he takes, never- 
theless, occasion to draw comparisons between their barbaric simplicity and the 
over-refined habits of the Europeans, much in the manner of Tacitus, who seizes 
upon every opportunity to rebuke the luxury and extravagance of his country- 
men, while he describes the rude sylvan life of the ancient inhabitants of Ger- 
many. My object being simply to rescue from oblivion a number of facts 
relating to a portion of the American race, I have omitted all superfluous com^ 
mentaries indulged in by the author, and, in order to bring kindred subjects 
under common heads, I have now and then used some freedom in the arrange- 
ment of the matter, which is not always jDroperly linked in the original. 
Although the second part of the book has chiefly furnislied the material for 
this reproduction, I have transferred to the English text, and inserted in the 
proper places, all those passages in the other divisions, and even in the two 
appendices that have a bearing upon ethnology, giving thus unity and com- 
pleteness to the subject, which induced me to prepare these pages. For the 
re«t I have preserved, so far as feasible, the language of the author. Not 
23 s 



354 THE ABOKIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

much can be said, however, in favor of the style exhibited in the original, and 
even the i?peiling of the words defies all rules of orthography, which were 
adopted a century ago in the German language ; nor in our father unaware of 
his deficiencies, but honestly states in his preface that " if his style was none 
of the smoothest, and his orthography incorrect in some places, the reader 
might conrfiJer that during the seventeen years of his sojourn in California, 
comprising the period from 1751 to 1768, he hardly ever had conversed in 
German, aud, consequently, almost forgotten the use of his mother language." 

Of the peninsula i'^ather Baegert gives a rather woel'ul account. He describes 
that region as an arid, mountainous country, covered wilh rocks and sand, 
deficient in water, and almost without shade-trees, but abounding in thorny 
plants and shrubs of various kinds. The sterility of the soil is caused by the 
scantiness of water. "No one," says the author, "need be afraid to drown 
himself in water; but the danger of dying from thirst is much greater." There 
falls some rain, accompanied by short thunder-storms, during the months of 
July, August, September, and October, filling the channels worn in the hard 
ground. Some of these soon become dry after the showei-s ; others, however, 
hold water during the whole year, and on these and the stagnant water col- 
lected in pools aud ponds men an"d beasts have to rely for drink. Of running 
waters, deserving the name of brooks, there are but six in the country, and of 
these six only four reach thq sea, while the others lose themselves not very far 
from their sources among rocks and sand. There is nothing to be seen iu 
Lower California that may be called a wood; only a few straggling oaks, 
pines, and some other kinds of trees unknown in Europe, are met with, and 
these are confined t(j certain localities. Shade and material for the carpenter 
are, therefore, very scarce. The only tree of any consequence is the so-called 
mesquite; but besides that it always grows quite isolated, aud never in groups, 
the trunk is very low, aud the wood so hard that it almost defies the applica- 
tion of iron tools. The author mentions, further, a kind of low Brazil wood, a 
tree called paloblanco, the bark of which serves for tanning ; the palohierro or 
iron-wood, which is still harder than the mesquite ; wild fig trees that bear no 
fruit ; wild willows and barren palms, " all of which would be ashamed to 
appear beside a European oak or nut-tree." One little tree yields an odoriferous 
gum that Avas used in the Californian churches as frankincense. But in com- 
pensation for the absence of large trees, there is a prodigious abundance of 
prickly pLints, some of a gigantic height, but of little practical use, their soft, 
spongy stems soon rotting after being cut. Among the indigenous edible pro- 
ductions of the vegetable kingdom are chiefly mentioned the tunas or Indian 
figs, the aloe, and the pitahayas, of which the latter deserve a special notice 
as forming an important article of food of the Indians. There are two kinds 
of this fruit — the sweet and the sour pitahaya. The former is round, as large 
as a hen's Qg^, and has a green, thick, prickly shell that covers a red or white 
flesh, in which the black seeds are scattered like grains of powder. It is 
described as being sweet, but not of a very agreeable taste without the addition 
of lemon juice and sugar. There is no scarcity of shrubs bearing this fruit, 
and from some it can be gathered by hundreds. They become mature in the 
middle of June, aud continue for more than eight weeks. The sour pitahaya, 
which grows on low, creeping bushes, bristling with long spines, is much 
larger than the other kind, of excellent taste, but by far less abundant ; for, 
altjiough the shrubs arc very plentiful, there is hardly one among a hundred 
that b«urs fruit. Of the aloe or mescalc, as the Spaniards and Mexicans call 
it, the fibres are used by the aborigines, in lieu of hemp, for making threads 
aud strings, and its fruit is eaten by them. 

A very curious portion of the book is that which treats of the animals found 
in California. The author is evidently not much of a naturalist, and, in classi- 
fyuig animuls, he mauifests occasionally a sovereign independence that would 



THE CALIFORNIA^ PENINSULA. 355 

shock the feelings of a Blumenbach or Agassiz; yet his remarks, resulting from 
actual observation, are for the most part correct, and evince undeniably his 
love of truth. In the ILst of wild quadrupeds are enumerated the deer, hare, 
rabbit, fox, coyote, wild cat, skunk, (Sorillo,) leopard, (American panther,) 
onza, and wild ram.- In reference to the last-named animal the author remarks : 
"AVhere the chain of mountains that runs lengthwise through the whole penin- 
sula reaches a considerable height, there are found animals resembling our 
rams in all respects, except the horns, which are thicker, longer, and much 
more curved. When pursued, these animals will drop themselves from the 
highest precipices upon their horns without receiving any injury. Their num- 
ber, however, cannot be great, for I never saw a living specimen, nor the fur 
of one in the possession of an Indian; but many skins of leopards and onzas." 

This animal is doubtless identical with the Eocky Mountain sheep, (Ovis 
montana.) 

The feathered tribe does not seem to be very plentiful in California, since, 
according to Father Baegert, a person may travel one or two days without see- 
ing other birds but occasionally a filthy vulture, raven, or "bat." Among the few 
which he observed are the red-bird, (cardinal) blue-bird, humming-bird, and 
an "ash-colored bird with a tail resembling that of a peacock and a beautiful 
tuft on its head;" also wild ducks and a species of swallow, the latter appear- 
ing only now and then in small numbers, and therefore considered as extraneous. 

There are some small fish found in the waters of California; but they do not 
amount to much, and during lent the father obtained his supply from the 
Pacific, distant 12 leagues from his habitation. On the other days of abstinence 
his meal usually consisted of a "little goat-milk and dry beans, and if a few 
eggs were added, he cared for nothing else, but considered himself well enter- 
tained." 

Under the comprehensive, but not very scientific head of " vermin," the author 
enumerates snakes, scorpions, centipedes, huge spiders, toads, wasps, bats, ants, 
and grasshoppers. These vermin seem to have been a great annoyance to the 
good missionary, especially the snakes, of which there are about twenty differ- 
ent kinds in California, the rattlesnake being, of course, the most conspicuous 
among them. This dangerous reptile, Avhich seems to be very numerous in that 
region, is minutely and correctly described, and, as might be expected, there 
are also some " snake stories" related. One day when the author was about 
to shave and took his razors from the ujjper board of his book-shelf, he discov- 
ered there, to his horror, a rattlesnake of large size. He received likewise in 
his new dAvelling-house, which was a stone building, frequent visits from scor- 
pions, large centipedes, tarantulas, ants and toads, ail precautions being unavail- 
ing against the intrusion of these uninvited guests. The grasshoppers are rep- 
resented as a real public calamity. Migrating from the southern part of the 
peninsula towards the north, they deluge the country, obscuring the ""sun by 
their numbers, and causing a noise that resembles a strong wind. Kever devi- 
ating from their line of march, they will climb houses and churches encountered 
during their progress, laying waste all fields and gardens over which their per- 
jaicious train passes. 

Of the climate in California the author speaks well, and considers it as both 
healthy and agreeable. Being only one degree and a half distant from the 
Tropic of Cancer, he lived, of course, in a hot region, and he remarks with ref- 
erence to the high temperature that some thought the name " California" was 
a contraction from the Latin words calida fornax, (hot oven,) without vouching, 
however, for the correctness of the derivation, though he is certain that the ap- 
pellation is not of Indian origin. The greatest heat begins in the month of 
July and lasts till the middle of October ; but there is every day in the year 
quite a refreshing wind blowing, which begins at noon, if not sooner, and con- 
tinues till night. The principal winds are north west and south west ; the north 



356 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

wind blows only now and then during tlio winter months, but the east wind 
hardly ever, the litter circumstance being somewhat surprising to the author, 
who observed that the clouds are almost invariably moviog from the east. He 
never found the cold severer than during the latter part of September or April 
on the banks of the llhine. where, after iiis return, the persevering coldness of 
•winter and clouded atmosphere during that period made him long for the mild 
temperature and always blue and serene sky of the country he had left. Fogs 
in the morning arc frequent ni California, and occur not only during fall and 
winter, but also sometimes in the hot season. Dew is said to be not more fre- 
quent nor heavier than m middle Europe. 

Though the author represents California as a dry, sterile country, where but 
little rain falls, he admits that in those isolated parts where the proximity of • 
water imparts humidity, the soil exhibits an astonishing fertility. " There," he 
says, "one may plant what he chooses, and it will thrive; there the earth yields 
fruit a hundred-fold, as in the best countries of Europe, producing wheat and 
maize, rice, pumpkins, water and other melons of twenty pounds' weight, cot- 
ton, lemons, oranges, plantains, pomegranates, excellent sweet grapes, olives 
and figs, of which the latter can be gathered twice in a summer. The same 
field yields a double or threefold harvest of maize, that grows to prodigious 
height, and bears sometimes twelve ears on one stalk. I have seen vines in 
California that produced in the second year a medium sized basket full of 
grapes; in the third or fourth year some arc as thick as an arm, and shoot forth, 
In one season, eight and more branches of six feet length. It is only to be re- 
gretted that such humid places are of very rare occurrence, and that water for 
irrigating a certain piece of land sometimes cannot be found within a distance 
of sixty leagues." 

iTii the last chapter of the first part the author gives an account of the pearl 
fisheries and silver mines carried on in Lower California while he was there. 
Both kinds of enterprise are represented as insignificant and by no means very 
profitable. " Every summer," he says, "eight, ten or twelve poor Spaniards 
from Sonora, Cinaloa or other parts opposite the peninsula, cross the Gulf in 
little boats, and encamp on the California shore for the purpose of obtaining 
pearls. They carry with them a supply of Indian corn and some hundred 
weight of dried beef, and are accompanied by a number of Mexican Indians, 
who serve as pearl fishers, for the Californians themselves have hitherto shown 
no inclination to risk their lives for a few yards of cloth. The pearl fishers 
are let down into the sea by ropes, being provided with a bag for receiving the 
pearl oysters which they rake from the rocks and the bottom, and when they 
can no longer hold their breath, they are pulled up again with their treasure. 
The oysters, without being opened, are counted, and every fifth one is put aside 
for the king. Most of them are empty; some contain black, others white pearls, 
the latter being usually small and ill-shaped. If a Spaniard, after six or 
eight weeks of hard laboi-, and after deducting all expenses, has gained a hun- 
dred American -pcsns (that is 500 French livres, or a little more than 200 Rhen- 
ish florins — a very small sum in America !) he thinks he has made a little for- 
tune whicli he cannot realize every season. God knows whether the fifth part 
of the pearls fished in the Californian sea yields, on an average, to the Catho- 
lic king loO or 200 pesos in a year, even if no frauds are committed in the 
transaction. I heard of only two individuals, with whom I was also personally 
acquainted, who had accumulated some wealth, after spending twenty and more 
years in that line of business. The others remained poor wretches, with all 
their pearl fishing/} 

There were buTTwo silver mines of any note in operation at the time of 
Baegert's sojourn in California, and those had been opened only a few years 
previous to his arrival. They were situated in the districts of St. Anna and 
St. Antonio, near the southern end of the peninsula, and only three leagues 



THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA. 357 

distant from eacli other. Digging for silver in California is not represented as 
a lucrative business, the owner of one of the mines being so poor that he had 
to beg for his travelling money when he was about to return to Spain. The 
proprietor of the other mine was in better circumstances, but he owed his wealth 
more to other speculations than to his subterranean pursuits. The mining 
population in the two districts amounted to 400 souls, women and children in- 
cluded, and the workmen were either Spaniards born in America, or Indians 
from the other side of the Californian gulf. The external condition of these 
people is represented as wretched in the highest degree. The soil produced 
almost nothing, and not having the necessary money to procure provisions from 
the Mexican side, they Avere sometimes compelled to gather their food- in the 
fields, like the native Californiaus. The author speaks of a locality between 
the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth degree, called Rosario, where some sup- 
posed gold to exist, but even admitting the fact, he thinks it would be almost 
impossible to work mines in that region, where neither food for men and beasts, 
nor water and wood, can be procured. Near the mission of St. Ignatius (28th 
degree) sulphur is found, and on the islands of El Carmen and St. Joseph in 
the Californian gulf, and in different places on both coasts salt of very good 
quality is abundant. 

Having thus given an abstract of the first part of the book, I cannot con- 
clude these introductory remarks without saying a few words in favor of the 
Jesuits. Whatever we may think, as Protestants, of the tendencies of that 
order, we cannot but admit that those of its members who came as missionaries 
to America deserve great credit for their zeal in propagating a knowledge of. 
the countries and nations they visited in the New World. iL'o the student of 
American ethnology particularly, the numerous writings of the Jesuit fathers 
are of inestimable va'lue, forming, as it were, the very foundations upon which 
almost all subsequent researches in that interesting field of inquiry are based. 

" The missionaries and discoverers whom the order of the Jesuits sent forth 
were for the most part not only possessed of the courage of martyrs, and of 
statesmanlike qualities, but likewise of great knowledge and learning. They 
were enthusiastic travellers, naturalists, and geographers ; they were the best 
mathematicians and astronomers of their time. They have been the first to 
give us faithful and circumstantial accounts of the new countries and nations 
they visited. There are few districts in the interior of America concerning 
which the Jesuits have not supplied us with the oldest and best "vVorks, and we 
can scarcely attemjat the study of any American language without meeting Avith 
a grammar composed by a Jesuit. In addition to their chapels and colleges in 
the Avilderness, the Jesuits likewise erected observatories ; and there are fcAV 
rivers, lakes, and mountains in the interior, which they have not been the first 
to draw upon our maps." 

With this well-deservod eulogy, which is quoted from Mr. J. Gr. Kohl's re- 
cent Avork on the discovery of America, I leave to Father Baegert himself the 
task of relating his experiences among the natives of Lower California. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF THE 
CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA. 

CHAPTER I. — THE STATITRE, COMPLEXION, AND NUMBER OF THE CALIFORNIANS ; 
ALSO, WHENCE AND HOW THEY MAY HAVE COME TO CALIFORNIA. 

In physical appearance the Californiaus resemble perfectly the Mexicans and 
other aboriginal inhabitants of America. Their skin is of a dark chestnut or 
clove color, passing, however, sometimes into different shades, some individuals 
being of a more SAvarthy complexion, while others are tan or copper colored. 



358 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

But in new-born cliilclren Ihe color is much paler, so that they hardly can be 
distinguished from white children when presented for baptism; yet it appears 
soon after birth, and assumes its dark tinge in a short time. The hair is black 
as pitch and straight, and seldom turns gray, except sometimes in cases of 
extreme old age. They are all beardless, and their eye-brows are but scantily 
provided Avith hair. The heads of children at their birth, instead of being cov- 
ered with scales, exhibit hair, sometimes half a finger long. The teeth, though 
never cleaned, are of the whiteness of ivory. The angles of the eyes towards 
the nose arc not pointed, but arched like a bow. They are well-formed and 
well-proportioned people, very supple, and can lift up from the ground stones, 
bones, and similar things with the big and second toes. All walk, with a few 
exceptions, even to the most advanced age, perfectly straight. Their children 
stand and walk, before they are a year old, briskly on their feet. Some are tall 
and of a commanding appearance, others small of stature, as elsewhere, but no 
corpulent individuals are seen among them, which may be accounted for by their 
manner of living, for, being compelled to run much around, they have no chance 
of growing stout. 

In a country as poor and sterile as California the number of inhabitants can- 
not be great, and nearly all would certainly die of hunger in a few days if it 
wore as densely populated as most parts of Europe. There are, consequently, 
very few Californiaus, and, in proportion to the extent of the country, almost 
as few, as if there Avere none at all ; yet, nevertheless, they decrea.se annually. 
A person may travel in different parts four and more days without seeing a 
single human being, and I do not believe that the number of Californians from 
the promontory of 'Bt. Lucas to the Rio Colorado ever amounted, before the 
arrival of the Spaniards, to more than forty or fifty thousand souls.* It is 
certain that in 1767, in fifteen, that is, in all the missions, from the 22d to the 
31st degree, only twelve thousand have been counted. But an insignificant 
population and its annual diminution are not peculiar to California alone ; both 
are common to all America, During my journey overland along the east side 
ot the Californian gulf, from Guadalaxara to the river Hiaqui, in the Mexican 
territory, a distance of four hundred leagues, t I Saw only thirteen small Indian 
villages, and on most days I did not meet a living soul. Father Charlevoix, 
before setting out on a journey through Canada or New France, writes in his 
first letter, addressed to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, that he would have to 
travel sometimes a hundred and more leagues without seeing any human beings 
besides his companions. | 

With the exception of ^lexico and some other countries. North America was, 
even at the time of the discovery, almost a wilderness when compared Avith 
Germany and France ; and this is still more the case at the present time. 
Whoever has read the history of Ncav France by the above-named author, or 
has travelled six or seven hundred leagues through Mexico, and, besides, ob- 
tained reliable information concerning the populauon of other provinces, can 
easily form an estimate of the number of native inhabitants in North America ; 
and if the southern half of the Ncav W^orld does not contain a hundred times 
more inhabitants than the northern part, Avhich, relying on the authority of men 
who have lived there many years and liaA^e travelled much in that country, I 
am far from believing, those European geographers Avho speak in their books of 
300 millions of Americans are certainly mistaken. Who knoAvs Avhether they 

* Wasliinf^ton IiTing states they had numbered from 25,000 to 30,000 souls when the first 
missions were established; on Avhat authority I do not know. — Adventures of Captain Bon- 
nccdk, (ed. of 1851,) p. 332. 

I Stiuidcn. — I trauslate this word by "league," though the French lieue is a little longer- 
than the German stiindc. 

t Histoiro.do la Nouveile France, par le P. de Charlevoix. Paris, 1744 ; vol. v, n. C6 



THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA. 359 

would find in all more tlian fifteen or twenty millions ? The many hundred 
languages which are spoken in South America alone are a sure evidence of a 
scanty population, although the contrary might be inferred at first sight; for, if 
there were more people, there would be more community among them, the tribes 
would live closer together, and, as a result, there would be fewer languages. 
The Ikas in my district speak a language different from that of the other people 
in my mission ; but I am pretty sure that the whole nation of these Ikas never 
amounted to five hundred persons. 

It is easy to comprehend why America is so thinly populated, the manner of 
living of the inhabitants and their continual wars among themselves being the 
causes of this deficiency ; but how it comes that, since the discovery of the fourth 
part of the world, its population is constantly melting down, even in those prov- 
inces where the inhabitants are not subjected to the Europeans, but retain their 
full, unrestrained liberty, as?, for instance, according to Father Charlevoix, in 
Louisiana, (that is, in the countries situated on both sides of the Mississippi,) is 
a question, the solution of which I leave to others, contenting myself with what 
is written in the Psalms, namely, that the increase or diminution of the human 
race in different countries is a mystery which man cannot penetrate. 

However small the number of Californians is, they are, nevertheless, divided 
into a great many nations, tribes, and tongues.* If a mission contains only one 
thousand souls, it may easily embrace as many little nations among its parish- 
ioners as Switzerland counts cantons and allies. My mission consisted of 
Paurus, Atshemes, Mitshirikutamais, Mitshirikuteurus, Mitshirikutaruanajeres, 
Teackwas, Teenguabebes, Utshis, Ikas, Anjukwares, Utshipujes ; all being 
different tribes, but hardly amounting in all to five hundred souls. 

It might be asked, in this place, why there existed fifteen missions on the 
peninsula, since it appears that 12,000, and even more, Indians could be con- 
veniently superintended and taken care of by three or four priests. The answer 
is, that this might be feasible in Germany as well as in a hundred places out of 
Europe, but is utterly impracticable in California; for, if 3 or 4,000 Califor- 
nians were to live together in a small district, the scanty means of subsistence 
afforded by that sterile country would soon prove insufficient to maintain them. 
Besides, all of these petty nations or tribes have their own countries, of which 
they are as much, and sometimes even more, enamored than other people of theirs, 
so that they would not- consent to be transplanted fifty or more leagues from 
the place they consider as their home. And, further, the different tribes who 
live at some distance from each other are always in a mutual state of enmity, 
which would prevent them from living peaceably together, and offer a serioua 
obstacle to their being enclosed in the same fold. In time of general contagious 
diseases, lastly, which are of no unfrec[uent occurrence, a single priest could no*. 
perform his duties to their full extent in visiting all his widely scattered patients, 
and administering to their spiritual and temporal wants. My parish countec*. 
far less than a thousand members, yet their encampments were often more than 
thirty leagues distant from each other. Of the languages and dialects in this 
country there are also not a few, and a missionary is glad if he has mastered 
one of them. 

It remains now to state my opinion concernino|- the pk.ce where the Califor- 
nians came from, and in what manner they effected their migration to the country 
they now occupy. They may have come from ditferent localities, and either 
voluntarily or by some accident, or compelled by necessity ; but that people 

* The antlior probably fell into the veiy common error of confounding dialects with lan- 
guages. Dr. Waitz, reljnng on Busclimann's linguistic researches, mentions only thveo priti' 
cipal languages spoken by the natives of Lower California, viz., the Pericu, Monqui, and 
Cochimi languages. — Antliropologie tier Naturvliikervon Dr. Theodor Waltz. Leipzig, 18;j4 ; 
vol iv, p. 24d. 



360 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

sliould have migratetl to California of tlieir own free will, and without compul- 
eiou, I am unable to believe. America is very large, and could easily support 
fifty times its number of inhabitants on much better soil than that of California. 
How, then, is it credible that men should have pitched, from free choice, their 
tents amidst the inhospitable dreariness of these barren rocks 1 It is not impos- 
sible that the iirst inhabitants may have found by accident their way across the 
sea from the other side of the Californian gulf, where the provinces of Cinaloa 
and Sonora are situttted ; but, to my knowledge, navigation never has been 
practiced by the" Indians of that coast, nor is it in use among them at the 
present time. There is, furthermore, within many leagues towards the interior 
of the country no kind of wood to be had suitable for the construction of even 
the smallest vessel. From the Piraeria, the northernmost country opposite the 
peninsula, a transition might have been easier either by land, after crossing the 
Rio Colorado, or by watei-, the sea being in this place very narroAv and full of 
islands. In default of boats they could employ their balsas or little rafts made 
of reeds, which are also used by ray Californians who live near the sea, either 
for catching fish or turtle, or crossing over to a certain island distant two leagues 
from the shore. I am, however, of opinion that, if these Pimerians ever had 
gone to California induced by curiosity, or had been driven to that coast by a 
storm, the dreary aspect of the country soon would have caused them to return 
without delay to their own country. It was doubtless necessity that gave the 
impulse to the peopling of the peninsula. Nearly all neighboring tribes of 
America, over whom the Europeans have no sway, are almost without cessation 
at war with each other, as long as one party is capable of resistance ; but when 
the weaker is too much exhausted to carry on the feud, the vanquished usually 
leaves the country and settles in some other part at a sufficient distance from 
its foes. I am, therefore, inclined to believe that the first inhabitants, while 
pursued by their enemies, entered the peninsula by land from the north side, 
and having found there a safe retreat they remained, and spread themselves out. 
If they had any traditions, some light might be thrown on this subject ; but no 
Californian is acquainted with the events that occurred in the country prior to 
his birth, nor does he even know who his parents Avere if he should happen to 
have lost them during his infancy. 

To all appearance the Californians, at least those toward the south, believed, 
before the arrival of the Spaniards in their country, that California constituted 
the whole world, and they themselves its sole inhabitants ; for they went to 
nobody, and nobody came to see them, each little people remaining within the 
limits of its small district. Some of those under my care believed to be de- 
rived from a bird ; some traced their origin from a rock that was lying not far from 
my house; while others ascribed their descent to still different, but always 
equally foolish and absurd sources. 

CHAPTER II. — THEIR HABITATIONS, APPAREL, IMPLEMEPJTS, AND UTENSILS. 

With the exception of the churches and dwellings of the missionaries, which 
every one, as Avell as he could, and as time and circumstances permitted, built 
of stone and lime, of stone and mud, of huge unburnt bricks, or other materials, 
and besides some barracks which the Indians attached to the missions, the few 
soldiers, boatmen, cowherds, and miners have now erected in the fourteen sta- 
tions, nothing is to be seen in California that bears a resemblance to a cit;;^, a 
village, a human dwelling, a hut, or even a dog-house. The Californians them- 
selves spend tlieir whole life, day and night, in the open air, the sky above them 
forming tlieir roof, and the hard soil the couch on Avhich they sleep. During 
winter, only, when the wind blows sharp, they construct around them, but only 
opposite the direction of the wind, a half moon of brush-wood, a few spans high, 



THE CALIFOKNIAN PENINSULA. 361 

as a protection against the inclemency of the weather,* showing thus that, not- 
withstanding their simplicity, they understand pretty well " how to turn the 
mantle towards the wind."t It cannot be otherwise with them; for, if they 
had houses, they would be compelled to carry their dwellings always with 
them, like snails or turtles, the necessity of collecting food urging them to wan- 
der constantly about. Thus they cannot start every morning from the same 
place and return thither in the evening, since, notwithstanding the small num- 
ber of each little people, a small tract of land could not provide them with 
provisions during a whole year. To-day the water will fail them ; to-morrow 
they have to go to' some locality for gathering a certain kind of seed that serves 
them as food, and so they fulfil to the letter what is written of all of us, namely, 
that we shall have no fixed abode in this world. I am certainly not much mis- 
taken in saying that many of them change their night-quarters more than a 
hundred times in a year, and hardly sleep three times successively in the same 
place and the same part of the country, always excepting those who are con- 
nected with the missions. Wherever the night surprises them they will lie 
down to sleep, not minding in the least the uncleanliness of the ground, or ap- 
prehending any inconvenience from reptiles and other vermin, of which there 
is an abundance in this country. They do not live under the shade of trees, as 
some authors have said, because there are hardly any trees in California that 
afford shade, nor do they dwell in earth-holes of their own making, as others 
have said, but sometimes, and only when it rains, they resort to the clefts and 
cavities of rocks, if they can find such sheltering places, which do not occur 
as frequently as their wants require. 

Whenever they undertake to construct shelters for protecting their sick from 
heat or cold, the entrance is usually so low that a person has to creep on hands 
and feet in order to get in, and the whole structure is of such small dimensions 
as to render it impossible to stand erect within, or to find room to sit down on 
the ground for the purpose of confessing or comforting the patient. Of no better 
condition are the huts of those Indians Avho live near th,e missions, the same 
being often so small and miserable that man and wife hardly can sit or lie down 
in them. Even the old and infirm are utterly indifferent as to their being under 
shelter or not, and it happened often that I'found old sick persons lyino- in the 
open air, for whose accommodation I had caused huts to be built on the pre- 
ceding day. So much for habit. 

As the blue sky forms the only habitation of the Californian Indians, so they 
wear no other covering than the brown skin with which nature has clothed them. 
This applies to the male sex in the full sense of the Avoid, and even women have 
been found in the northern parts of California in a perfect state of nudity, while 
among most nations the females always covered themselves to a small extent. 
They did, and still continue to do, as follows : They understand how to pre- 
pare from the fibres of the aloe plant a white thread, which serves them for 
making cords. | On these they string hundreds of small sections of water-reed, 
like beads of a rosary; and a good number of these strings, attached by their 
ends to a girdle, and placed very close and thick together, form two aprons, 
one of which hangs down below the abdomen, while the other covers the hind 
part. These aprons are about a span wide, and of different length. Among 

* Captain Bonneville gives a cheerless account of a village of the Eoot Diggers, which lie 
saw in crossing the plain below Powder river. "They live," says he, " Avitirout any j'urther 
protection from the mclemency of the season than a sort of break-^veatllcl■, about lliree i'eet 
high, composed of sage, (or wormwood, ) and erected around them in the shape of a half 
moon." — IVasliington Irving : Adccntiircs of Cwptain Bonneville, p. 259. 

t German proverb. 

t It may not be out of place to mention here that in Mexico the dried fibres of the aloe or 
maguey plant (Agave Americana) are a universal substitute for hemp in the mauulkcture of 
cordage and packing-cloth. 



362 THE ABOEIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

Bome nations they reacli down to the knees ; among others to the calves, and 
even to the feet. Both sides of the thighs, as well as the rest of the body, re- 
main perfectly naked. In order to save labor, some women wear, instead of the 
back-aprons, a piece of nntanned deer-skin, or any woollen or linen rag which 
they can now-a-days obtain. Of the same untanned skin they make, if they 
can get it, their shoes or sandals, simply fiat pieces, which they attach to the 
feet by coarse strings of the above-mentioned aloe, passing between the big and 
small toes and around the ankles. 

Both sexes, the grown as well as the children, Avear the head always uncov- 
ered, however inclement the weather may be, even those in a certain mission 
who understand how to manufacture pretty good hats from palm-leaves, which, 
on account of their lightness, Avere frequently worn by the missionaries while 
on their travels. The men allow the hair to grow down to the shoulders. Wo- 
men, on the contrary, wear it much t^horter. Formerly they pierced the ears of 
new-born children of the male sex with a pointed stick, and by putting bones and 
pieces of wood into the aperture they enlarged it to such a degree that, in some 
grown persons, the flaps hung down nearly to the shoulders. At present, how- 
ever, they have abandoned this unnatural usage. It has been asserted that 
they also pierce the nose. I can only say that I saw no one disfigured in that 
particular manner, but many middle-aged persons Avith their ears perforated as 
described above. Under certain circumstances, and on their gala days, they 
paint different parts of the body with red and yelloAV coloi-, which they obtaia 
by burning certain minerals. 

The baptized Indians, of course, observed more decency in regard to dress. 
The missionaries gave each male individual, once or twice in a year, a piece of 
blue cloth, six spans long and two spans wide, for covering the lower part of 
the body, and, if their means allowed it, a short woollen coat of blue color. The 
Avomen and girls Avere provided Avith thick Avhite veils, made of avooI, that cov- 
ered the head and the Avhole body down to the feet. In some missions the 
women received also petticoats and jackets of blue flannel or woA-en cotton 
ehirts, and the men trowsers of coarse cloth and long coats. But the Avomen 
IhroAV aside their \-eils, and the men their coats, as soon as they leave church, 
because those coA^eriugs make them feel uneasy, especially in summer, and im- 
pede the free use of their limbs, Avhich their mode of living constantly requires. 
I Avill mention here that all these goods had to be brought from the city of 
Mexico, since nothing of the kind can be manufactured in California for want 
of the necessary materials. The number of sheep that can be kept there is 
small, and, moreover, they lose half their avooI by passing through the thorny 
shrubs, of which there is an astonishing abundance in this ill-favored country. 

It is not to be expected that a people in as low a state of deA^elopmcnt as the 
Californians should make use of many implements and utensils. Their Avhole 
furniture, if that expression can be applied at all, consists of a boAv and arroAvs, 
a flint instead of a knife, a bone or pointed piece of AA'ood for digging roots, a 
turtle-shell serving as basket and cradle, a large gut or bladder for fetching 
water and transporting it during their excursions, and a bag made like a fishing 
net from the fibres of the aloe, or the skin of a wild cat, in which they preserve 
and carry their provisions, sandals, and perhaps other insignificant things which 
they may happen to possess. ♦ 

The boAvs of the Californians arc more than six feet long, slightly curved, 
and made from the roots of Avild willoAvs. They are of the thickness of the 
five fingers in the middle, round, and become gradually thinner and pomted 
tOAvards the ends. The bow-strings are made of the intestines of beasts. The 
shafts of their arroAvs consist of common reeds, Avhich they straighten by the 
fire. They arc above six spans long, and liaA^e, at the loAver end, a notch to 
catch the string, and three or lour feathers, about a finger long, not much pro- 
jecting, and let into slits made for that purpose. x\t the upper end of the shaft 



THE CALIFOENIAN PENINSULA. 363 

a pointed piece of lieavy -wood, a span and a half long, is inserted, bearing 
usually at its extremity a tlint of a triangular shape, almost resembling a serpent's 
tongue, and indented like the edge of a saw.* The Californians carry their 
bows and arrows always with them, and as they commence at an early age to 
use these weapons many of them become very skilful archers. 

In lieu of knives and scissors they use sharp flints for cutting almost every- 
thing- — cane, wood, aloe, and even their hair — and for disembowelling and skin- 
ning animals. With the same .flints they bleed or scarify themselves, and 
make incisions for extracting thorns and splinters which they have accidentally 
run into their limbs. 

The whole art of the men consists in the manufacture of bows and arrows, 
while the mechanical skill of the females is merely confined to the making of 
the above-mentioned aprons. Of a division of labor not a trace is to be found 
among them ; even the cooking is done by all without distinction of sex or age, 
every one providing for himself, and the children commence to practice that 
necessary art as soon as they are able to stir a fire. The time of these people 
is cluefly taken up by the search for food and its preparation; and if their physical 
wants are supplied they abandon themselves entirely to lounging, chattering, and 
sleep. This applies particularly to the roaming portion of the Oalifornian In- 
dians, for those who dwell near the missions now established in the country are 
sometimes put to such labor as the occasion may require. 

CHAPTER III. OF THEIR FOOD AND THE MANNER OF PREPARING IT. 

IsTotv/ithstandiug the barrenness of the country, a Oalifornian hardly ever dies 
of hunger, except, perhaps, now and then an individual that falls sick in the wil- 
derness and at a great distance from the mission, for those who are in good health 
trouble themselves very little about such patients, even if these should happen 
to be their husbands, wives, or other relations ; and a little child that has lost 
its mother or both parents is also occasionally in danger of starving to death, 
because in some instances no one will take charge of it, the father being some- 
times inhuman enough to abandon his ofispring to its fate. 

The food of the Oalifornians, as Avill be seen, is certainly of a mean quality, 
yet it keeps them in a healthy condition, and they become strong and grow old 
in spite of their poor diet. The only period of tlae year during wkich the Oali- 
fornians can satisfy their appetite without restraint is the season of the pitaha- 
yas, which ripen in the middle of June and abound for more than eight weeks. 
The gathering of this fruit may be considered as the harvest of the native in- 
habitants. They can eat as much of it as they please, and with some this food 
agrees so well that they become corpulent during that period ; and for this rea- 
son I was sometimes unable to recognize at first sight individuals, otherwise 
perfectly familiar to me, who visited me after having fed for three or four weeks 
on these pitahayas. They do not, however, preserve them, and when the sea- 
son is over they are put again on short rations. Among the roots eaten by 
the Califoi-nians may be mentioned the yuka, which constitutes an important 
article of food in many parts of America, as, for instance, in the island of Ouba, 
but is not very abundant in California. In some provinces it is made into a 
kind. of bread or cake, while the Oalifornians, Avho would find this process too 
tedious, simply roast the yukas in a fire like potatoes. Another root eaten by 
the natives is that of the aloe plant, of which there are many kinds in this 
country. Those species of this vegetable, however, which afford nourishment 
— for not all of them are edible — do not grow as plentifully as the Oaliforni- 
ans might Avish, and very seldom in the neighborhood of water ; the prepara- 

* In the collection of Dr. E. H. Davis, of New York, there are a number of arrows ob- 
tained from the Indians of the island of Tibuion, in the Californian gulf. They answer, in 
every respect, the description given in the text. 



3G-1: THE ABORIGIXAL INHABITANTS OF 

tion?, moreover, vrliicli are necessary to render lliis plunt eatable, req^uire mucli 
time and labor, as will be mentioned bereaf'ter. I saw tbe native.s also treciuentlv" 
cat tbe roots of tbe common reed, just as tbcy were taken out of tbe water. 
Certain seeds, some of tbem not larger tban tbose of tbe mustard, and different 
sorts in pods tbat grow on sbrubs and little trees, and of Avbicb tliere are, ac- 
cording to T<"'atber Piccolo, more tban sixteen kinds, are likewise diligently 
songbt; yet tbey furnisb only a small quantity of gi'ain, and all tbat a person 
can collect witli mucb toil during a wbole year may scarcely amount to twelve 
busbels.* 

It can be said tbat tbe Californians eat, witbout exception, all animals tbey 
can obtain. Besides tbe different kinds of larger indigenous quadrupeds and 
birds already mentioned,! tbey live now-a-days on dogs and cats; borses, asses 
and mules; item, on owls, mice and rats ; lizards and snakes ; bats, grassbop- 
pers and crickets ; a kind of green cnterpillar witbout bair, about a finger long, 
and an abominable Avbite worm of tbe lengtbaud tbickucss of tbetbumb, wbicb 
tbey bud occasionally in old rotten Avood, and consider as a particular delicacy. 
Tbe cbasc of game, sucb as deer and rabbits, furnisbes only a small portion of 
a Calitbruian's provisions. Supposing tbat for a bundi-ed families tbrec buu- 
dred deer are killed in tbe course of a year, wbicb is a very favorable estimate, 
tbey would supply eacb family only witb tbree meals in tbrce bundred and 
sixty-five diiys, and tlius relieve but in a very small degree tbe Innigeraud tbe 
lioverty of these people. Tbe bunting for snakes, lizards, mice and field-rats, 
wbicb tbey practice witb great diligence, is by far more profitable and supplies 
tbem witb a mucb greater quantity of articles for consumption Snakes, espe- 
cially, are a favorite sort of small game, and tbousauds of tbem find annually 
tbeir way into tbe stomacbs of tbe Californians. 

In catcbing fisb, particularly in tbe Pacific, wbicb is mucb ricbcr in tbat re- 
spect tban tbe gulf of California, tbe natives use neitber nets I nor books, but 
a kind of lance, — tbat is, a long, slender, pointed piece of bard wood, wbicb tbey 
bandlc very dexterously in spearing and killing tbeir prey. Sea-turtles are 
caugbt in tbe same manner. 

I bave now mentioned tbe different articles forming tbe ordinnry food of tbe 
Californians ; but, besides tbese, tbey reject notbiug tbat tbeir teetb can cbew 
or tbeir stomacbs are capable of digesting, bowever tasteless or luiclean and 
disgusting it may be. Tbus tbey will eat tbe leaves of tbe Indian fig-tree, tbe 
tender sboots of certain sbrubs, tanned or untanned leatber ; old straps of raw 
h de witb wbicb a fence was tied togetber for years ; item, tbe bones of poultry, 
s seep, goats and calves ; putrid meat or fisb swarming witb worms, damaged 
wbeat or Indian corn, and many oiber tbings of tbat sort wbicb may serve to 
appease tbe bunger tbcy are iilmost constantly suffering. Anytbing tbat is 
tbrown to tbe bogs will be also accepted by a Calilornian, and bo takes it 
Aviibout feeling offeudfd. or thinking for a moment tbat be is treated below bis 
dignity. For this reason no one took the trouble to clean the vA'beat or maize, 
Avbicb Avas cooked for tbem in a laigc; kettle, of tbe black Avonns and little bugs, 
even if the numbers of these A^ermin bad been equal to tbat of tbe grains. By 
a daily disiribution of about 150 busbels of bran, (wbicb tbey are in tbe babif 
of eating witbout any preparation,) I could have induced ail my parisbionejfi 

* One iiKtller, in Germiiu, Avliieh is about equivalerjt to tweh^e bushels. 

tin ibi! iiitrotluctiou. 

X VenojTHS mentions fisbiiig-iietf? made of tbe pita plant, (Noticia tie la California, vol. i, p. 
52.) Aceoaling to Laegreit, (Appendix i, p. :5vi,', ) no such plant exists in California, and the 
word "pita" only sif^uifies the thread twisted fVom the aloe. In let'utiiin: Vene<!^as, I'^ather 
Baegeit hardly ever rei'ers to the original ."Spanish Avork, nor mentions the naine of its author, 
but iitfacks the French translation, wliicli was published iu Paris in the jear ]7(i7. He 
probably acted so from motives of delicacy, Vencgas himself being a priest and brother 
Jesuit. The effect of this proceeding, as can be imagined, is comicarin a high degree. 



THE CALIFOENIAN PENINSULA. 365 

to remain permanently iu the mission, excepting during tlie time when the pita- 
hay as are gathered. 

I saw one day a blind man, seventy years of age, who was busily engaged in 
pounding between two stones an old shoe made of raw deer-skin, and when- 
ever he had detached a piece, he transferred it promptly to his mouth and swal- 
lowed it ; and yet this man had a daughter and groAvn grand-children. As 
soon as any of the cattle are killed and the hide is spread out on the ground 
to dry, half a dozen boys or men will instantly rush upon it and commence to 
work with knives, flints and their teeth, tearing and scratching ofl' pieces, which 
they eat immediately, till the hide is full of holes or scattered in all directions. 
In the mission of St. Ignatius and iu others further towards the north, there 
are persons who will attach a piece of meat to a string and swallow it and pull 
it out again a dozen times in succession, for the sake of protracting the enjoy- 
ment of its taste. 

I must here ask permission of the kind reader to mention something of an 
exceedingly disgusting and almost inhuman nature, the like of which probably 
never has been recorded of any people in the world, but which demonstrates 
better than anything else the whole extent of the poverty, uncleanuess and 
voracity of these wretched beings. In describing the pitahayas,* I have al- 
ready stated that they contain a great many small seeds resembling grains of 
powder. For some reason unknown to me these seeds are not consumed in the 
stomach,' but pass off in an undigested state, and in order to save them the 
natives collect, during the season of the pitahayas, that which is discharged 
from the human body, separate the seeds from it, and roast, grind and eat them, 
makino- merry over their loathsome meals, which the Spaniards therefore call 
the second harvest of the Califomians.t When I first heard that such a filthy 
habit existed among them, I was disinclined to believe the report, but to my 
utter regret I became afterwards repeatedly a Avitness to the proceeding, which 
they are unwilling to abandon like many other bad practices. Yet I must say 
in their favor that they have always abstained from human flesh, contrary, to 
the horrible usage of so many other American nations who can obtain their 
daily food much easier than these poor Californians. 

They have no other drink but the water, and Heaven be praised that they 
are unacquainted with such strong beverages as are distilled in many Ameri- 
can provinces from Indian corn, the aloe and other plants, and which the 
Americans in those parts merely drink for the purpose of intoxicating them- 
selves. When a Californian encounters, during his wanderings, a pond or pool, 
and feels a desire to quench his thirst, he lies flat on the ground and applies 
his mouth directly to the water. Sometimes the horns of cattle are used as 
drinking vessels. 

Having thus fxir given an account of the different articles used as aliment by 
the aborigines of the peninsula, I will now proceed to describe in what manner 
they prepare their victuals. They do not cook, boil, or roast like people 
in civilized countries, because they are neither acquainted with these methods, 
nor possessed of vessels and utensils to employ for such purposes; and, besides, 
their patience would be taxed beyond endurance, if they had to wait till a 
piece of meat is well cooked or thoroughly roasted. Their whole process 
simply consists in burning, singeing, or roasting in an open-fire all such victuals 
as are not eaten in a raw state. Without any formalities the piece of meat, 
the fish, bird, snake, field-mouse, bat, or whatever it may be, is thrown into 
the flames, or on the glowing embers, and left there to smoke and to sweat for 
about a quarter of an hour ; after which the article is withdrawn, in most cases 

* Introduction. . , • c. ^ n r^ i- 

\ This statement is corroborated in all particulars by Clavigero, m ins btoria delta Cali- 
fornia, (Venice, 1789,) vol. i, p. 117. 



3GG THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

only burned or chai-rcd on tlic outs dc, but still raw and bloody within. As 
soon as it lia.< become sufficiently cool, they shake it a little in order to remove 
the adhering dust or sand, and eat it with great relish. Yet I must add here, 
that they do not previously take the trouble to skin the mice or disembowel 
the rats, nor deem it necessary to clean the half-emptied entrails and maws of 
larger animals, Avhich they have to cut in pieces before they can roast them. 
Seeds, kernels, grasshoppers, green caterpillars, the white worms already men- 
tioned, and similar things thcit would be lost, on account of their smallness, in 
the embers and flames of an open fire, are parched on hot coals, which they 
constantly throw up and shake in a turtle-shell, or a kind of frying-pan woven 
out of a certain plant. What they have parched or roasted in this manner is 
ground to powder between two stones, and eaten in a dry state. Bones are 
treated in like manner. 

They eat everything unsalted, though they might obtain plenty of salt ; but 
since they cannot dine every day on roast meat and constantly change their 
quarters, they would find it too cumbersome to carry always a supply of salt 
Avirh them. 

The preparation of the aloe, also called mescale or maguey by the Spaniards, 
requires more time and labor. The roots, after being properly separated from 
the plants, are roasted for some hours in a strong tire, and then buried, twelve 
or twenty together, in the ground, and well covered with hot stones, hot ashes, 
and earth. In this state they have to remain for twelve or fourteen hours, and 
when dug out again they are of a fine yellow color, and perfectly tender, 
making a very palatable dish, Avhich has served me frequently as food when I 
h;id nothing else to eat, or as dessert after dinner in lieu of fruit. But they 
act at first as a purgative on persons who are not accustomed to them, and 
leave the throat somewhat rough for a few hours afterwards. 

To light a fire the Californians make no use of steel and flint, but obtain ii 
by the friction of two pieces of wood. One of them is cylindrical, and pointed 
on one end, which fits into a round cavity in the other, and by turning the 
cylindrical piece with great rapidity between their hands, like a twirling stick, 
they succeed in igniting the lower piece, if they continue the process for a 
suflicient length of time. 

The Californians have no fixed time for any sort of business, and eat, con- 
sequently, Avhenever they have anything, or feel inclined to do so, which ia 
nearly always the case. I never asked one of them Avhether he was hungry, 
who failed to answer in the affirmative, even if his appearance indicated the 
contrary. A meal in the middle of the day is the least in use among them, 
because they all set out early in the morning for their foraging expeditious, 
and return only in the evening to the place from which they started, if they 
do not choose some other locality lor their niglit quarters. The day being 
thus spent in running about and searching for food, they have no time left for 
preparing a dinner at noon. They start always empty-handed; for, if per- 
chance something remains from their evening repasts, they certainly eat it 
during the night in Avaking moments, or on the following mornnig before 
leaving. The Californians can endure hunger easier and much longer than 
other people ; wln-reas they will eat enormously if a chance is given. I often 
tried to buy a piece t)f venison from them when the skin had but lately been 
stripped of? the deer, but regularly received the answer that nothing was left ; 
and I knew well enough that the hunter who killed the animal needed no 
assistance to finish it. Twenty-four pounds of meat in twenty -four hours ia 
not deemed an extraordinary ration for a single person, and to see anything 
eatable before him is a temptation for a Californian which he cannot resist ; 
and not to make away with it before night would be a victory he is very 
seldom capable of gaining over himself. 



THE CALIFORNIAN TENINSULA. 367 

One of tliem requested from liis missionary a number of goats, in order to 
live, as he said, like a decent man; that is, to keep house, to pasture the goats, 
and to support himself and his family with their milk and the flesh of the kids. 
But, alas ! in a fevy days the twelve goats with which the missionary had pre- 
sented him were all consumed. 

A priest who had lived more than thirty years in California, and vhose 
veracity Avas beyond any doubt, assured me repeatedly that he had known a 
Californian who one day ate seventeen watermelons at one sitting; and another 
native who, after having received from a soldier six pounds of unclarified sugar 
as pay for a certain debt, sat down and munched one piece after another till 
the six pounds had disappeared. He paid, however, dearly for his gluttony, 
for he died in consequence of it ; while the melon-eater was only saved by 
taking a certain physic which counteracted the bad effects of his greediness. 
1 was called mystdf one evening in great haste to three or four persons, who 
pretended to be dying, and wanted to confess. These people belonged to a 
band of about sixty souls, (women and children included,) to whom I had given, 
early in the morning, three bullocks in compensation- for some labor. When 
I arrived at the place where they lay encamped, I learned that their malady 
consisted merely in belly-ache and vomiting ; and, recognizing at once the 
cause of their disorder, I reprimanded them severely for their voracity, and 
went home again. 

CHAPTER IV. OF THEIR MARRIAGES AND THE EDUCATION OP THEIR CHILDREN. 

As soon as the young Californian finds a partner, the marriage follows im- 
mediately afterwards ; and the girls go sometimes so far as to demand impetu- 
^ ously a husband from the missionary, even before they are twelve years old, 
which is their legitimate age for marrying. In all the missions, however, only 
one excepted, the number of men was considerably greater than that of the 
females. 

Matrimonial engagements are concluded without m\ich forethought or scruple, 
and little attention is paid to the morals or qualities of the parties; and, to con- 
fess the truth, there is hardly any difference among them in these respects ; 
and, as far as good sense, virtue, and riches are concerned, they are always 
sure to marry their equals, following thus the old maxim : Si vis nubere, nube 
pari. It happens very often that near relations want to join in wedlock, and 
their engagements have, therefore, to be frustrated, such cases excepted in 
which the imjycdhncntum affinitatis can be removed by a dispensation from the 
• proper authorities. 

They do not seem to marry exactly for the same reasons that induce civ- 
ilized people to enter into that state ; they .simply want to have a partner, and 
the husband, besides, a servant whom he can command, although his authority in 
that respect is rather limited, for the women are somewhat independent, and 
not much inclined to obey their lords. Although they are now duly married 
according 1;o the rites of the Catholic church, nothing is done on their part to 
Bolemnize the act ; none of the parents or other relations and friends are 
present, and no wedding feast is served up, unless the missionary, instead of 
receiving his marriage fees, or jura stolae, presents them Avith a piece of meat, 
or a quantity of Indian corn. Whenever I joined a couple in matrimony, it 
took considerable time before the bridegroom succeeded in putting the Avedding 
ring on the right finger of his future Avife. As soon as the ceremony is over, 
the neAV married couple start off in different directions in search of food, just ae 
if they Avere not more to each other to-day than they Avere yesterday; and in 
the same manner they act in future, providing separately for their support, 
sometimes without living together for weeks, and AA'ithout knowing anything 
of their partner's abiding place. 



368 THE ABOEIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

Before tlicy were baptized eacli man took as many wives as lie liked, aud if 
there were several sisters in a fauiily he married them all together. The son- 
in-law Avas not allowed, lor some time, to look into the face of his mother-in- 
law or his wife's next female relations, but had to step aside, or to hide himself, 
Avheu these women were present. Yet they did not pay much attention to con- 
sanguinity, and only a t'ow years since one of them counted his own daughter 
(as ho believed) among the number of liis Avivcs. They met without any 
formalities, and their vocabulary did not even contain the words "to marry," 
which is expressed at the present day in the Waicuri language by the para- 
phrase tikere imdiri — that is, "to bring the arms or hands together." They 
had, and still use, a substitute for the word "husband," but the etymological 
meaning of that expression implies an intercourse with women in general. 

They lived, in fact, before the establishment of the missions in their country, 
in litter licentiousness, and adultery was daily committed by every one without 
shame and without any fear, the feeling of jealousy being unknown to them. 
Neighboring tribes visited each other very often only for the purpose of spending 
some days in open debauchery, and during such times a general prostitution 
prevailed. Would to God that the admonitions and instructions of those who 
converted these people to Christianity and established lawful marriages among 
them, had also induced them to desist entirely from these evil practices ! Yet 
they deserve pity rather than contempt, for their manner of living together en- 
genders vice, and their sense of morality is not strong enough to prevent them 
from yi(;lding to the temptations to which they are constantly exposed. 

In the first chapter of this book I have already spoken of the scanty popu- 
lation of this country. It is certain that many of their women are barren, and 
that a great number of them bear not more than one child. Only a few out of 
one or two hundred bring forth eight or ten times, and if such is really the case, 
it happens very seldom that one or two of the children arrive at a mature age. 
I baptized, in succession, seven children of a young woman, yet I had to bury 
them all before one of them had reached its tliird year, and when I was about 
to leave the country I recommended to the woman to dig a grave for the eighth 
child, with which she was pregnant at the time. The unmarried people of both 
sexes and the children generally make a smaller group than the married and 
widowed. 

The Californian women lie in without difficulty, and without needing any 
assistance. If the child is born at some distance from the mission they carry 
it thither themselves on the same day, in order to have it baptized, not minding 
a walk of two or more leagues. Yet, that many infants die among them is not 
surprising; on the contrary, it would be a wonder if a great number remained 
alive. For, when the poor child first sees the light of day, there is no other 
cradle provided for it but the hard soil, or the still harder shell of a turtle, in 
Avhicli the mother places it, without much covering, and drags it about Avhercver 
she goes. And in order to be unencumbered, and enabled to use her limbs with 
greater freedom while running in the fields, she Avill leave it sometimes in charge 
of some old woman, and thus deprive the poor creature for ten or more hours of 
its natural nourishment. As soon as the child is a few months old the mother 
places it, perfectly naked, astraddle on her shoulders, its legs hanging down on 
both sides in front, and it has consequently to learn how to ride before it can 
stand on its feet. In this guise the mother roves about all day, exposing licl- 
helpdess charge to the hot rays of the sun and the chilly winds that sweep over 
the inhospitable country. ^I'he food of the child, till it cuts its teeth, consists 
oidy in tiie milk of the mother, and if that is wanting or insufficient, there is 
rarely another -woman to be found that would be willing, or, perhaps, in the 
proper condition, to take pity on the poor starving being. I cannot say that 
the Calilbrnian women are too fond of their children, and some of them may 
even consider the loss of one as a relief from a burden, especially if they havo 



THE CALrFORNlAN PENINSULA 369 

already some small children. I did not see many Oalifornian mothers who 
caressed their children much while they lived, or tore their hair when they 
died, althougli a kind of dry weeping is not wanting on such occasio'ns. The 
father is still more insensible, and does not even look at his (or at least his 
wife's) child as long as it is small and helpless. 

Nothing causes the Californians less trouble and care than the education of 
ihei'" 'ihildren, which is merely confined to a short period, and ceases as soon 
as the latter are capable of making a living for themselves — that is, to catch 
mice and to kill snakes. If the young Californians have once acquired suflS- 
cient skill and strength to follow these pursuits, it is all the same to them 
whether they have parents or not. JNothingis done by these in the way of 
admonition or instruction, nor do they set an example v,'orthy to be imitated 
by their offspring. The children do what they please, without fearing repri- 
mand or punishment, however disorderly and wicked their conduct may be. 
It would be well if the parents did not grow angry when their children are 
now and then slightly chastised for gross misdemeanor by order of the mis- 
sionary ; but,' instead of bearing with patience such wholesome correction of 
their little sons and daughters, they take great offence and become enraged, 
. especially the mothers, who will scream like furies, tear out the hair, beat their 
naked breasts with a stone, and lacerate their heads with a piece of wood or 
bone till the blood flows, as I have frequently witnessed on such occasions.* 

The consequence is, that the children follow their own inclinations without 
any restraint, and imitate all the bad habits and practices of their equals, or 
still older persons, without the slightest apprehension of being blamed by their 
fathers and mothers, even if these should happen to detect them in the act of 
committing the most disgraceful deeds. The young Californians who live in 
the missions commence roaming about as soon as mass is over, and those that 
spend their time in the fields go wherever, and with whomsoever, they please, not 
seeing for many days the faces of their parents, who, in their turn, do not mani- 
fest the slightest concern about their children, nor make any inquiries after 
them. These are disadvantages which the missionary has no power of amending, 
and such being the case, it is easy to imagine how little he can do by instruction, 
exhortation, and punishment, towards improving the moral condition of these 
young natives. 

Heaven may enlighten the Californians, and preserve Europe, and especially 
Germany, from such a system of education, which coincides, in part, with the 
plan proposed by that ungodly visionary, J. J. Rousseau, in his "Emile," and 
which is also recommended by some other modern philosophers of the same 
tribe. If their designs are carried out, education, so far as faith, religion, and 
the fear of God are concerned, is not to be commenced before, the eighteenth or 
twentieth year, which, if viewed in the proper light, simply means to adopt the 
Californian method, and to bring up youth without any education at all. 

(to be continued in the next report.) 

* This statement does not seem to agree well witli the alleged indifference of the Californian 
•vomen towards their children, and the formalities which the Californians were obliged to 
observe, when meeting with the mothers and other female relations of their wives, renders a 
total absence of jealousy among them rather doubtful. Dr. Waitz has also pointed out tho 
latter discrepancy while citing a number of facts contained in our author's; work, (Anthro- 
pologie der Naturvcelker, vol. iv, p. 250.) My object being simply to give an English ver- 
sion of Baegei t's account, I abstain from all comments on such real or seeming incongruitiea. 

24 s 



AN ACCOUNT 
OP 

THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS 

OF 

THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA, 

AS GIVEN BY 

JACOB BAEGERT, A GERMAN JESUIT MISSIONARY, WHO LIVED THERE SEVEN- 
TEEN YEARS DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE LAST CENTURY. 



TRANSLATED AND ARRANGED BY CHARLES RAD. 



{Continued from the Smhhsonian Report for 1863.) 
CHAPTER V. THEIR CHARACTER. 

In describing the character of the Cahfornians, I can only say that they are 
dull, awkward, rude, unclean, insolent, ungrateful, given to lying, thievish, 
lazy, great talkers, and almost like children in their reasoning and actions. 
They are a careless, improvident, unreflecting people, and possess no control 
over themselves, hut follow, in every respect, their natural instincts almost like 
animals. 

They are, nevertheless, like all other native Americans, human beings, real 
children of Adam, and have not groAvu out of the earth, or of stones, like moss 
and other plants, as a certain impudent, lying freethinker gives to understand. 
I, at le.ist, never saw one growing in such a way, nor have I heard of any of 
them who originated in that peculiar manner. Like other people, they are pos- 
sessed of reason and understanding, and their stupidity is not inborn with 
them, but the result of habit ; and I am of opinion that, if their young sons 
were sent to European seminaries and colleges, and their girls to convents 
where young females are instructed, they would prove equal in all respects to 
Europeans in the acquirement of morals and of useful sciences and arts, as has 
been the case with many young natives of other American provinces. I have 
known some of them who learned several mechanical trades in a short time, 
often merely by observation ; and, on the contrary, others who appeared to me 
duller, after twelve or more years, than at the time when I first became ac- 
quainted with them. God and nature have endowed these people with gifts 
and talents like others ; but their rude life hinders the development of these 
faculties, and thus they remain awkward, dull, and so slow in their understand- 
ings that it requires considerable pains, time, and patience to teach them the 
doctrines and precepts of the Christian faith, insomuch that a sentence of only 
a few words must be I'cpeated to them twelve times and oftener before they are 
capable of reciting it. 

It may not be out of place to corroborate here what Father Charlevoix says 
of the Canadians, namely, that no one should think an Indian is convinced of 
what he has heard because he appears to approve of it. He will assent to 
anything, even though he has not understood its meaning or reflected upon his 
answer, and he so does either on account of his indolence or indifference, or 
from motives of selfishness, in order to please the missionary. 



ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA. 379 

The Oalifornians do not readily confess a crime unless detected in tlie act, 
because tliey hardly comprehend the force of evidence, and are not at all 
athamed of lying. A certain missionary sent a native to one of his colleagues 
wi'Ji some loaves of bread and a letter stating their number. The messenger 
ate a part of the bread, and his theft was consequently discovered ; another 
time, when he had to deliver four loaves, he ate two of them, but hid the 
accompanying letter under a stone while he was thus engaged, believing that 
his conduct would not be revealed this time, as the letter had not seen him in 
the act of eating the loaves. 

In the mission of St. Borgia the priest ordered his people one day to strew 
the way Avith some green herbs, because he was about to bring the holy sacra- 
ment to a sick person, and his order was promptly executed by them, but to 
the great damage of the missionary's kitchen-garden, for they tore up all the 
cabbages, salad, and whatever vegetables they found there, and threw them on 
the road.. 

Yet, notwithstanding their incapacity and slow comprehension, they are, 
nevertheless, cunning, and show, in many cases, a considerable degree of crafti- 
ness. They will sell their poultry to the missionary at the beginning of a 
sickness, and afterwards exhibit a disposition to eat nothing but chicken-meat, 
till none of the fowls are left in the coop. A prisoner will feign a dangerous 
malady and ask for the last sacrament in order to be relieved from his fetters, 
and to find, subsequently, a chance to escape. They rob the missionary in a 
hundred ways, and sometimes in the most artful manner. If, for instance, one 
has pilfered the pantry and left it open in his haste, another one forthwith 
requests to be admitted to confession, in order to give the thief time for closing 
the door, and thus to remove all cause of suspicion on the part of the mis- 
sionary. They also invent stories and relate them to their priest for the pur- 
pose of frustrating a marriage engagement, that some other party may obtain 
the bride. These and many hundred similar tricks have actually been played 
by them, and show conclusively that they are well capable of reasoning when 
their self-interest or their needs demand it. 

The Californians are audacious and at the same time faint-hearted and timid 
in a high degree. They climb to the top of the weak, trembling stems, sometimes 
thirty-six feet high, which are called cardones by the Spaniards, to look out<for 
game, or mount an untamed horse, without bridle and saddle, and ride, during 
the night, upon roads which I was afraid to travel in the daytime. Wlien new 
buildings are erected, they walk on the miserable, ill-constructed_ scaffoldings 
with the agilitj of cats, or venture several leagues into the open sea on a bundle 
of brushwood, or the thin stem of a palm-tree, without thinking of any danger. 
But the report of a gun makes them forget their bow»- and arrows, and half a 
dozen soldiers are capable of checking several hu»d!red Oalifornians, 

Gratitude towards benefactors, respect for superiors, parents, and other rela- 
tions, and. politeness in mtercourse with fellow-men, are almost unknown to 
them.* They speak plainly, and pay compliments to no one. If one of them 
has received a present, he immediately turns his back upon the donor and 
walks off" without saying a word, unless the Spanish phrase, Dios te lo pague, 
or, " God reward you," has been previously, by a laborious' process, enforced 
upon his memory. 

Where there is no honor, shame is ever wanting, and therefore I always 
wondered how the word "ie," that is, "to be ashamed," had been introduced 

* According to Baegert's own statement, (p. 309, ) the forced departure of the Jesuit mis- 
sionaries from the peninsula caused great distress among the Indians, who expressed their , 
' grief by a general howling and weeping, which shows that the feelings of gratitude and 
attachment were not entirely wanting in their character, although selfishness may have had 
a large share in the demonstration. The parting scene is well described in a few lines by 
W. li-ving. — Adv. of Captain Bonneville, p. 332. 



380 THE ABORIGINAL INIIAIJITAXTS OF 

into tlieir language; for, among tlicmsclves, no one v.'ould blush on account of 
any misdeed lie had perpetrated. If one had killed his father and mother, 
robbed churches, or committed other infamous crimes, and had been a hundred 
times whipped and pilloried, he would, nevertheless, strut about with a serene 
brow and an erect head, and without being in the least degraded in the eyes of 
his people. 

Laziness, lying, and stealing are their hereditary vices and principal moral 
defects. They are not a people upon whose word any reliance can be placed, 
ciit they will answer in one breath six times "yes" and as many times "no," 
without fcehug ashamed, or even perceiving that they contradict themselves. 
They are averse to any labor not absolutely necessary to supply them with the 
means of satisfying hunger. If any Avork occurred in the "mission, it was 
necessary to drive and urge them constantly to their task, and a great number 
complained of sickness during the week-days, for which reason I always called 
the Sunday a day of miracles, because all those who had been sick the Avhole 
week felt wonderfully well on that day. If they were only a little more indus- 
trious, they might improve then- condition, to a certain extent, by planting 
some maize, pumpkins, and cotton, or by keeping small flocks of goats, shee-p, 
or even a fev*^ cattle ; and, having now learned to prepare the skins of deer, 
they could easily supply themselves with garments. But nothing of this kind 
is to be expected of them. They do not care to eat pigeons, unless they fly 
roasted into their mouths* To work to-day and to earn the fruit of their 
labor only three or six months afterwards seems to be incompatible with their 
character, and for this reason there is little hope that they Avill ever adopt a 
different mode of life. 

Books could be filled with accounts of their thefts. They will not touch 
gold or silver ; but anything that can be chewed, be it raw or cooked, above 
the ground or below, ripe or unripe, is not more sate from them than the mouse 
from the cat, if the eye of the owner be only diverted for a moment. The 
herdsman will not even spare the dog that has been given to him to watch the 
flock of sheep or goats intrusted to his care. While one day observing, un- 
seen, my cook, who was engaged in boiling meat, I noticed that he took one 
pipce after another out of the kettle, bit off a part, and threw it again into the 
vessel. The meal on the missionary's table, Avhen he is suddenly°called aAvay, 
is not safe from their thievery, and even the holy Avafers in the sacristy are in 
danger of being taken by them. Yet they sometimes lay their hands on things 
of which they can make no use whatever, in a way really surprisina:, whidi 
shows to Avhat degree stealing has become a habit with them 

For eight years 1 kept, ranging at large, from four to five hundred ]ie;id of 
cattle, and soni<-times as many goats and sheep, until the constant robberies of 
the Indians of my own and the neighboring mission compelled me to give up 
cattle-breeding. t tn the bodies of nineteen cows and oxen, that had been 
killed in one day in the mission, there were found, after the removal of the skin, 
more than eight flint-points of arrows, the shafts of which had been broken off 
by the wounded animals Avhile passing through the rocks and bushes. I 
believe that more of these animals were killed and eaten by the natives than 
were brought to the mission for consumption, and horses and asses suffered in 
like manner. 



* German proverb. 

t The cattlo, as well as the p:oats and sliecp, are clcscribod as small aud lean, owino- to the 
sc-anty pasturage. The horses, tliough small, were of a good breed aud eaduriuo-, but they 
did not sufficiently multiply, and iVosh auunals had to be imported every year to mount tho 
soldiers and cowherds. "Th(! ass alone." says the author, "which is nowhere choice, but 
always contented, fares tolerably well in California. He works but little, and feeds on the 
prickly shrabs with as much rehsh as if they were tho most savory oats." The number of 
hogs on the whole peninsula hardly amounted to a dozen. 



THE CALIFOSNIAN PENINSULA. 381 

In order to be exempt from labor, or to escape tlie punisliment for gross 
misdeeds, the Califoruiaus sometimes counterfeit dangerously sick or dying 
persons. Many of those who were carried to the mission in such a feigned state 
by their comrades received a sound flogging, Avhich suddenly restored them to 
health. Without mentioning all the cases that fell under my notice, I will 
speak of two individuals who represented dying persons so well that I did not 
hesitate to give them extreme unction. Another really frightened me by pre- 
tending to be infected Avith the smallpox, which actually raged in the neighboring 
mission, causing its priest for three montfjs, day and night, a vast deal of trouble 
and care, and keeping him almost constantly on horseback. A fourth, whose 
name ^vas Clement, seemed also resolved to give up the ghost. With him, 
however, the difficulty was that he had never seen a dying person, not even his 
wife, whom I had buried, and often visited during her sickness, without ever 
finding the husband at home. But having Avitnessed the death of many cows 
and oxen, which his arrows had brought down, he imitated the dying beast so 
naturally, by lolling out his tongue and licking his lips, that he went afterwards 
always hy the name of CJemente vacca or Coin Clement. 

Nothing excites the admiration of the Oaliforniaus. They look upon the 
most splendid ecclesiastic garments, embroidered with gold and silver, with as 
much indifference as though the material consisted of wool and the galoons of 
common flax. They would rather see a piece of meat than the rarest manu- 
factures of Milan and Lyons, and resemble, in that respect, a certain Canadian 
who had been in France, and remarked, after his return to Canada, that nothing 
in Paris had pleased him better than the butcher-shops.* 

They are not in the least degree susceptible of disgust, but will touch and 
handle the uncleanest objects as though they were roses, killing spiders with 
their fists, and taking hold of toads without aversion. They use as a covering 
the, filthiest rag, and wear it until it rots on their bodies. In person they are 
exceedingly dirty, and Avaste hardly any time in decorating and embellishing 
themselves. I must mention here, also, that they are in the habit of Avashiug 
themselves Avitli urine, which renders their persons very disagreeable, as I have 
often experienced Avhen I had to confess them. I Avas informed by relio,ble 
people that they eat a certain kind of large spiders, and likeAvise the vermin 
Avhich they take from each other's heads; but I never saAv them doing it: 
Avhereas I saAv them frequently fetch their maize porridge at noon in a half- 
cleaned turtle-shell AA'hich the}^ had used the whole morning to carry the dung 
from the folds of the sheep and goats. 

Concerning their improvement by the introduction of the Christian religion, 
I am unable to bestoAv much praise upon those among Avhom I lived seventeen 
years, during which period I had sufficient opportunity to become thoroughly 
acquainted with their character; but I must confess, to my greatest affliction, 
that the seed of the Divine Word has borne but little f\-uit among them ; for 
this seed fell into hearts already obdurated in vice from their very infancy by 
seduction and bad example, Avhich all pains and exertions on the part of the 
missionary Avere unavailing to remove. The occasions for evil-doing, among 
young and old, are of daily occurrence, find numberless. The parents them- 
selves give the Avorst example, and the Spanish soldiers, coAvherds, and a fcAv 
others Avho come to the country for the purpose of pearl-fishing and mining, 
contribute not a little to increase vice among the native population. The mo- 

* Mr. Catlin relates a similar circumstance of a party of Iowa Indians that AA^ere exhibited 
in London. After their first drive through the city, "they returned to their lodgings la 
great glee, and amused ns at least for an hour Avith their first impressions of London, the 
leading, striking feature of Avhich, and the one that seemed to afford them the greatest satis- 
faction, was the quantity of fresh meat that they saw in every street hanging up at the doors 
and Avindows." — Catlin's Notes of Eight Years'' Travels and Residence in Europe. New 
York, 1848 : vol. ii, p. 9. 



582 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

tives, on the otlier hand, wliicli act elsewhere as checks upon the conduct of 
the people, and keep them within the bounds of decency, are not at all under- 
stood or appreciated by the Californiaus, for which reason the teachings of 
religion can make but little impression upon their unprepai'ed minds; and being 
thus unrestrained by any considerations, they easily yield to the impulses of 
their character, in which a strong passion for illegal sexual intercourse forms a 
prominent feature. In all bad habits and vices the Californian Avomen fully 
equal the men, but smpass them in impudence and want of devotion, contrary 
to the habit of the female sex in all the rest of the world. There were certainly 
some among the Californians who led edifying lives and behaved in a praise- 
worthy manner after having embraced the Christian faith; but their number 
was very small ; the reverse, on the contrary, being the general rule to such a 
degree that the wicked and vicious formed the great majority of the natives. 

CHAPTER VI. — THEIR CHARACTER, CONTINUED. — AN ACCOUNT OF THE ASSASSI- 
NATION OF THE JESUIT FATHERS TAMARAL AND CARRANCO.* 

To all other bad qualities of the Californians may be added their vindictive- 
uess and cruelty. They care very little for the life of man, and an insignificant 
cause will stimulate them to commit a murder. Among other cases which 
happened while I lived in their country, I will mention that of the master of a 
small ship loaded with provisions for two poor missions. This man had scolded 
a number of natives for some cause or other, which they resented by breaking 
his skull with a heavy stone, while he was eating his supper on the shore. His 
ship they abandoned to wind and waves. In the year 1760, a boy of about 
sixteen years stabbed another of the same age with a knife in the abdomen, and 
struck him on the head with a heavy club, almost within sight of the whole 
tribe, and only a stone's throw from the church and the house of the missionary. 
The murderer had already selected a horse on which to escape, and intended to 
save himself within a church thirty leagues distant from the place Avhere the 
crime was committed ; but he failed to effect his flight, t 

Up to the year 1750 the Californians had revolted at different times and 
places, and compelled several missionaries to abandon their stations, and to seek 
safety in other quarters. The natives were stirred up to these insurrections 
either by their conjurers or sorcerers, whose influence had been considerably 
reduced, or because it was requested of them to keep those promises which they 
had made when receiving the holy baptism. 

The most extensive and dangerous revolt of all began in the year 1733, in the 
southern part of the peninsula, among two tribes called the Pericucs and Coras, 
who are to this day of a very fierce, unruly, and untractable character, and who 
gave much trouble to Father Ignatius Tirs, from Kommotau, in Bohemia, the 
last Jesuit missionary who resided in their district, f 

In the year 1733 'there existed in that part of the country, which was inhab- 
ited by several thousand natives, four missions, with three priests, who had in 
all only six soldiers for their protection. The missions were the following: 
La Paz, without a resident priest, and guarded by one soldier ; St. Rosa, under 
Father Sigismund Taraval, a Spaniard, born in Italy, protected by three sol- 
diers ; St. Yago, over which Father Lorenzo Oarranco, a Mexican, of Spanish 

* This episode in the missionary history of California forms a separate chapter in ihe third 
part of our author's worlc ; but as it throws much light on the temperament of the natives, I 
have inserted it in this place. 

t This church was probably considered as an asylum or place of safety. 

t Ho was one of those who shared with the author, in 17G7, the fate of banishment. At 
that time there were in all sixteen Jesuits in Lower California — fifteen priests and one lay 
brother. Six of them were Spaniai'ds, two Mexicans, and eight Germans. The names of 
the latter are given on page 312 by the author, who omits, however, his own name in order 
to preserve his anonymous character. 



THE CALIFOKNIAN PENINSULA. 383 

parentage, resided, witli two soldiers; and St. Joseph del Cabo, under .Father 
Nicolas Tamaral, from Sevilla, in Spain, without any guard. 

The motives leading to this insurrection, which were afterwards freely divulged 
by the natives, consisted in their unwillingness to content themselves with one 
Avife, although they had promised to renounce polygamy, and their displeasure 
at being reprimanded for certain transgressions deserving the censure of their 
spiritual advisers. The ringleaders and principal movers of the rebellion were 
two individuals, Boton and Chicori by name, who exerted a great influen<ce 
among the natives, and prepared everything in secret for the outbreak. Their 
object was to kill the three priests, to exterminate all traces of Christianity, 
which most of them had adopted ten years before, and to resume their former 
loose and independent manner of living. Their design became, however,^ known, 
and the fire was extinguished before it could blaze up in full flames. The In- 
dians feigned a friendly disposition, and a kind of peace was established towards 
the beginning of the year 1734. But as this peace was not concluded with 
sincerity, it could not be of a long duration. The treacherous rebels soon again 
made attempts to carry out at all hazards the objects they had in view, and 
really succeeded in the following October, though not so completely as they 
wished, since Father Taraval found the means to escape their murderous hands. 
The six soldiers were their principal obstacle. Meeting in the field with one 
of them of the mission of St. Eosa, they assassinated him, and sent word to the 
mission that he was very ill, requesting the priest either to come to the place in 
order to confess him, or to order the two remaining soldiers to transport the 
patient to the station, their intention being to decoy the one or the others, and 
to take their IJVes. But fortunately the messenger delivered his commission in 
^uch an awkward manner that the crime they had already perpetrated, as well 
as their further designs, could be easily divined, for which reason neither the 
priest nor the soldiers complied with their request. A few days afterward they 
killed also the only soldier belonging to the mission de la Paz. , 

The rumor of these two murders, and other indubitable signs of an impending 
mutiny and general uprising in the south, were spread abroad, and soon reached 
the ears of the Superior of the missions, who was then at that of the Seven 
Dolors, nearly ninety leagues from the place Avhere these events had occurred. 
He sent orders immediately to the three priests whose lives were endangered to 
save themselves by flight, but the letters fell into the hands of the mutineers, 
and would, besides, at any rate have arrived too late to avert the peril. 

It was the intention of the conspirators to strike the first blow against the 
mission of St. Joseph and Father Tamaral; but learning that Father Carranco 
had already received intelligence of their plans, they rushed with all speed 
upon his mission before he could make any preparations for defence, or eftect 
his escape from the place. It was on a Saturday, and the 2d of October, when 
they arrived at the mission of St. Yago. The father had just said mass, and 
had locked himself in his room to perform his private devotions. Most unfor- 
tunately the two soldiers, who formed his whole body-guard, had left the place 
on horseback in order to bring in some head of cattle for the catechumens and 
other people of the mission. After a while the returned messengers, whom 
Father Carranco had despatched to the mission of St. Joseph to Avarn Father 
Tamaral of the danger to Avhich he Avas exposed, entered the room. Father 
Carranco was reading his answer, when the murderers entered the house and 
fell upon him. Some thrcAv him on the ground and dragged him by his feet to 
the front of the church, Avhile others pierced' his body Avith many arrows, and 
beat him with stones and clubs till he expired. 

A little native boy, who used to Avait upon the father when he took his meals, 
AT as a Avitness to the act, and shed tears Avhen he beheld his benefactor's 
mournful fate ; upon which one of the barbarians seized the boy by the legs 
and smashed his head against the Avail, saying, that since he showed so mucli 



384 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

regret at the deatli of liis master, lie slionld also serve bim and bear bim com- 
pany in the otlier world. Among the murderers were some wbom tbe father 
bad considered as the most reliable of bis flock, and whose fidelity be never bad 
doubted. 

Having torn the garments from the lifeless body, they treated it in a most 
abominable manner in order to wreak their vengeance, and they finally threw 
it on a burning pile. After this they set tbe church and the house on lire, and 
bui'ued to ashes the utensils of the. church, the altar, tbe representations of our 
Saviour and of the Saints, and everything else that they could not apply to 
their own use. In the mean time the two unarmed soldiers, who bad been sent 
after cattle, returned. They were compelled to di^'moiint and to kill the cows 
for the malefactors, after which the savages despatched them with a shower of 
arrows. 

On the following day, tbe same fate befell Father Tamaral, the priest of the 
mission of St. Joseph, twelve leagues distant from that of St. Yngo, for as soon as 
the villains had committed their crime at the one place, they directed their 
march to the other. Father Tamaral, not believing the report of his colleague, 
was quietly sitting in bis bouse, when the savage crowd, considerably increased 
by members of bis own parish, made their appearance in tbe mission. In their 
usual manner, they demanded something from the missionary, for the purpose 
of finding a pretext for quarrelling and commencing their hostilities, in case tbe 
priest should disa})poiut them in their wishes. 13ut their behavior, and tbe 
arms which they all carried with them, soon convinced the missionary that they 
bad other designs, and he consequently not only complied with their requests, 
but gave them even more than they demanded. Being thus baflled in their 
attempt, and full of eagerness to carry out their bloody plan, they put aside all 
dissimulation and attacked the missionary without further delay. They threw 
bim on the ground, dragged him into the open air, and discharged their arrows 
upon him. One of their number, whom the father had a short time before pre- 
sented with a large knife, added ingratitude to cruelty by burying tbe weapon 
in bis body. 

Thus the Fathers Tamaral and Carranco were led to the shambles by their 
own flock, and closed their days in California, after they bad spent many years 
iu that country, and, by a blameless life and great zeal, proved themselves 
worthy to die the death of martyrs. Tbe abuses to which the savages sub- 
jected the body of tbe deceased priest were greater, in this instance, and they 
exhibited more wantonness in the destruction of tbe church and other property 
than on tbe preceding day, because the crowd was larger and bad become more 
infuriated by previous success. 

Father Taraval, of St. Rosa, the third priest of whom they intended to make 
a victim, succeeded in making good bis flight. He sojourned for the moment 
on the western coast of California, at the station of All Saints, which formed an 
adjunct to his own mission, and was a two days' journey distant from St. Joseph. 
Being Avarned in due time by some faifhful Indians of tbe danger that threat- 
ened him, he packed u]) in great baste bis most needful things and rode at full 
speed, in company \v\[h bis two soldiers, during the night of tbe fourth of Octo- 
ber towards the opposite sliore of tbe peninsula, where be embarked near the 
mission of La Paz in a small vessel, which had been despatched to that place 
when the first news of tbe impending rebellion became known. He landed in 
safety at tbe mission of the Seven Dolors, then situated near the sea;. leaving 
behind him the smoking ruins of four missions that bad been totally destroyed 
in less than four days, but which could only be rebuilt and raised to their former 
importance with great sacrifices of time, labor, and human life. 

Tbe rebels, however, fared badly, and had no cause to glory in their triumph. 
Tbe southern tribes, whose number was four thousand souls at the outbreak of 
tbe revolt, are now reduced to fourhundred.for not only was war waged against 



THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA. ^}i,^ 

tliem by the Oalifornian and foreign militia, but tbey bad also quarrels among 
themselves.* Yet these causes were less effective in their destruction than the 
loathsome diseases and ulcers by which they were visited, and among the four 
hundred that now remain, only a few are free from the general malady and 
enjoy the blessing of sound health. 

On the other hand, be that grace of Heaven a thousand times praised, which, 
in our day also, inspires among the members of the Catholic priesthood, and 
especially in the Society of Jesus, nien of superior courage who, without the 
slightest self-interest and for the sole purpose of propagating the Christian faith, 
not only brave all dangers to which they are exposed in wild countries and 
amidst barbarous tribes, but who also v/illingly give up their lives when occa- 
sion demands such sacrifices ! For besides these two Californian missionaries, 
many others belonging to the same society have suffered death in the course 
of this century, while engaged in the conversion of heathen nations. Among 
the great number of these victims, I Avill only mention Father Thomas Telle, 
a Spaniard, and Father Henry Ruhen, a G-erman from Westphalia, both Jesuits, 
who were killed as late as 1751, by the mutinous Pimas, on the other side of 
the Californian gulf. With Father Ruhen, I had crossed the Atlantic ocean a 
year before, and we made also in company the journey overland as far as the 
Pimeria, where he closed his days six months after his arrival. 

CHAPTER VII. THEIR TREATMENT OF THE SICK. FUNERAL CUSTOMS. 

With all their poor diet and hardships, the Oalifornians are seldom sick. 
They are in general strong, hardy, and much healthier than the many thousands 
who live daily in abundance and on the choicest fare that the skill of Parisian 
cooks can prepare. It is very probable that most Oalifornians would attain a 
considerable age, after having safely passed through the dangers of their child- 
hood; but they are immoderate in eating, running, bathing, and other matters, 
and thus doubtless shorten their existence. Excepting consumption and that 
disease which was brought from America to Spain and Naples, and from thence 
spread over various countries, they are but little subject to the disorders com- 
mon in Europe; podagra, apoplexy, dropsy, cold and petechial fevers being 
almost unknown among them. There is no word in their language to express 
sickness in general or any particular disease. "To be sick," they signify by 
the phrase atemha-fie, which means "to lie down on the ground," though all 
those in good health may be seen in that position the whole day, if they are 
]iot searching for food or otherwise engaged. When I asked a Californian what 
ailed him, he usually said, "I have a pain in my chest," without giving further 
particulars. 

For the small-pox the Oalifornians are, like other Americans, indebted to 
Europeans, and this disease assumes a most pestilential character among them. 
A piece of cloth Avhich a Spaniard, just recovered from the small-pox, had given 
to a Californian communicated, in the year 1763, the disease to a small mission, 
and in three months more than a hundred individuals died, not to speak of many 
others who had been infected, but Avere saved by the unwearied pains and care 
of the missionary. Not one of them would have escaped the malady, had not 
the majority run away from the neighborhood of the hospital as soon as they 
discovered the contagious nature of the disease. 

In the month of April of the same year, 1763, a young and strong woman 
of my mission was seized with a very peculiar disorder, consisting in eructa- 

* This is tho only instance in which the author alkides to wars among the natives in the 
body of his book, 'thoup:h the iirst appendix contains, on page 328, the following remark in 
refutation of a passage in the French translation of Venegas's work: "All that is said in 
reference to the warfare of the Californians is wrong. In their former wars they merely 
attacked the enemy unexpectedly during the night, or from an ambirsh, and killed as many 
as they could, without order, previous declaration of war, or any ceremonies whatever." 
25 S 



qc^(3 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

tions of Piicli violent cbaractcr that the noise almost resembled thunder, and 
could be heard at a distance of forty and more paces. The eructations lasted 
about half a minute, and followed each other after an interval of a few minutes. 
The appetite of the patient was good, and she complained of nothing else. In this 
condition ,-hc remained for a Aveek, when she suddenly dropped down in such a 
manner that I thought she would never rise again ; but I was mistaken, for the 
eructations and the peculiar fits continued for three years, until she became at 
last emaciated and cited in the month of July, 1766. A few days after the 
outbreak of her malady, her husband was attacked by the same disorder, and 
on my departure, in 1768, I left him without hope of recovery. Subsequently 
the woman's brother and his wife suft'ercd in like manner, and after these 
several other Californians, principally of the female sex. Neither the oldest of 
the natives, nor missionaries living for thirty years in the country, had hitherto 
been acquainted with this extraordinary and apparently contagious disease. 

The patience of Californians in sickness is really admirable. Hardly a sigh 
is heaved by those who lie on the bare ground in the most pitiable condition 
and racked with pain. They look without dread upon their ulcers and wounds, 
and submit to burning and cutting, or make incisions in their own flesh for ex- 
tracting thofns and splinters, with as much indifference as though the operation 
were performed on somebody else. It is, however, an indication of approach- 
ing death when they lose their appetite. 

Their medical art is very limited, consisting almost exclusively, whatever 
the character of the disease may be, in the practice of binding, when feasible, 
a cord or coarse rope tightly around the affected part of the body. Sometimes 
they make use of a kind of bleeding by cutting with a sharp stone a few small 
openings in the inflamed part, in order to draw blood and thus relieve the 
patient. Though every year a number of Californians die by the bite of the 
rattlesnake, their only remedy against such accidents consists in tightly bind- 
ing the injured member a little above the wound towards the heart; but if the 
part wounded by the reptile is a finger or a hand, they simply cut it off, and I 
knew several who had perfoi-med this cure on themselves or on individuals of their 
families. Now-a-days they beg in nearly all cases of disease for tallow to rub 
the affected part, and also for Spanish snuff which they use against headache 
and sore eyes. Excepting the remedies just mentioned, they have no appli- 
ances Avhatever against ulcers, wounds, or other external injuries, and far less 
against internal disorders; and though they may repeatedly have seen the 
missionary using some simple for removing a complaint, they will, either from 
forgetfiilnc-ss or indolence, never employ it for themselves or others, but always 
apply to the missionary again. 

They do not, however, content themselves with these natural remedies, but 
have also recourse to supernatural means, which certainly never brought about 
a recovery. There are many impostors among them, pretending to possess the 
power of curing diseases, and the ignorant Indians have so much faith in their 
art that they send for one or more of these scoundrels whenever they arc indis- 
posed. In treating a sick person, these jugglers employ a small tube, which 
they use for sucking or blowing the patient for a while, making, also, various 
grimaces and muttering something which they do not understand themselves, 
until, finally, after much hard breathing and panting, they show the patient a 
flint, or some other object previously hidden about their persons, pretending to 
have at last removed the real cause of the disorder. Twelve of these liars 
received one day, by my orders, the punishment they deserved, and the whole 
people had to promise to desist in future from these practices, or else I would 
no more preach for them. But when, a fxiw weeks afterwards, that individual, 
who first of all had engaged to renounce the devil, fell sick, he sent imme- 
diately again for the blower to perform the usual jugglery. . 



THE CALIFOENIAN PENINSULA. 337 

It is to be feared that some of those who are seized with illness far from the 
mission, and not carried thither, are buried alive, especially old people, and 
such as have few relations, for they are in the habit of digging the grave tAvo 
or three days before the patient breathes his last. It seems tedious to them to 
spend much time near an old, dying person that was long ago a burden to them 
and looked upon with indifference. A person of my acquaintance restored a 
girl to life that was already bound up in a deer-skin, according to their custom, 
and ready for burial, by administering to her a good dose of chocolate. She lived 
many years afterwards. On their way to the mission, some natives broke the 
neck of a blind, sick old woman, in order to be spared the trouble of carrying 
her a few miles further. Another patient, being much annoyed by gnats, which 
no one felt inclined to keep off from him, was covered up in such a manner 
that he died of suffocation. In transporting a patient from one place to 
another, they bind him on a rude litter, made of crooked pieces of wood, which 
would constitute a perfect rack for any but Indian bones, the carriers being in 
the habit of running with their charge. 

Concerning their consciences and eternity, the Oalifornians are perfectly 
quiet during their sickness, and die off as calmly as though they were sure of 
heaven. As soon as a person has given up the ghost, a terrible howling is 
raised by the women that are present, and by those to whom the news is com- 
municated, yet no one sheds tears, excepting, perhaps, the nearest relations, 
and the whole proceeding is a mere ceremony. But who would believe that 
some of them show a dislike to be buried according to the rites of the Catholic 
religion ? Having noticed that certain individuals, who were dangerously sick, 
yet still in possession of their faculties, objected to being led or carried to the 
mission, in order to obtain there both spiritual and material assistance, I in- 
quired the cause of this strange behavior, and was informed they considered it 
as a derision of the dead to bury them with ringing of the bells, chanting, and 
other ceremonies of the Catholic church. 

One of them told me they had formerly broken the spine of the deceased 
before burying them, and had thrown them into the ditch, rolled up like a ball, 
believing that they Avould rise up again if not treated in this manner. I saw 
them, however, frequently putting shoes on the feet of the dead, which rather 
seems to indicate that they entertain the idea of a journey after death ; but 
whenever I asked them why they observed this probably very ancient custom, 
they could not give me any satisfactory answer. In time of mourning, both 
men and women cut off their hair almost entirely, which formerly was given 
to their physicians or conjurers, who made them into a kind of mantle or large 
wig, to be worn on solemn occasions. 

When a death has taken place, those who want to show the relations of the 
deceased their respect for the latter lie in wait for these people, and if they 
pass they come out from their hiding-place, almost creeping, and intonate a 
mournful, plaintive, Im, hu, Im ! wounding their heads with pointed, sharp 
stones, until the blood flows down to their shoulders. Although this barbarous 
custom has frequently been interdicted, they are unwilling to discontinue it. 
When I learned, a few years ago, that some had been guilty of this trans- 
gression after the death of a certain woman, I left them the choice either to 
submit to the fixed punishment or to repeat this mourning ceremony in my 
presence. They chose the latter, and, in a short time, I saw the blood trick- 
ling; down from their lacerated heads. 

CHAPTER VIH. THEIR QUALIFICATIONS AND MANNERS. 

From what I have already said of the Californians, it might be inferred that 
they are the most unhappy and pitiable of all the children of Adam. Yet 
such a supposition would be utterly wrong, and I can assure the reader that, 
as for as their temporal condition is concerned, they live unquestionably much 



388 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

happier than tlie civilized inliabitauts of Europe, not excepting those who seem 
to enjoy all the felicity that life can afford. Habit renders all things endurable 
and easy, and the Californian sleeps on the hard ground and in the open air 
just as well and soft as the rich European on the curtained bed of down in his 
splendidly decorated apartment. Throughout the whole year nothing happens 
that causes a Californian trouble or vexation, nothing that renders his life cum- 
l:>ersome and death desirable; for no one harasses and persecutes him, or car- 
ries on a lawsuit against him ; neither a hail-storm nor an army can lay waste 
his fields, and he is not in danger of having his house and barn destroyed by 
fire. Envy, jealousy, and slander embitter not his life, and he is not exposed 
to the fear of losing what he possesses, nor to the care of increasing it. No 
creditor lays claim to debts ; no officer extorts duty, toll, poll-tax, and a hun- 
dred other tributes. There is no woman that spends more for dress than the 
income of the husband allows ; no husband who gambles or drinks away the 
money that should serve to support and clothe the family ; there are no children 
to be established in life ; no daughters to be provided with husbands ; and no 
prodigal sons that heap disgrace upon whole families. In one word, the Oali- 
forniaus do not know the meaning of meum and tumn, those two ideas which, 
according to St. Gregory, fill the few days of our existence with bitterness and 
vmcountable evils. 

Though the Californians seem to possess aiothing, they have, nevertheless, 
all that they want, for they covet nothing beyond the productions of their 
poor, ill-favored country, and these are always within their reach. It is no 
wonder, then, that they always exhibit a joyful temper, and constantly indulge 
in merriment and laughter, showing thus their contentment, which, after all, is 
the real source of happiness. 

The Californians know very little of arithmetic, some of them being unable 
to count further than six, while others cannot number beyond three, insomuch 
that none of them can say how many fingers he has. They do not possess 
anytliing that is worth counting, and hence their indifference. It is all the 
same to them whether the year lias six or twelve months, and the month three 
or thirty days, for every day is a holiday with them. They care not whether 
they have one or two or twelve children, or none at all, since twelve cause 
them no more expense or trouble than one, and the inheritance is not lessened 
by a plurality of heirs. Any number beyond six they express in their lan- 
guage by much, leaving it to their confessor to make out whether that number 
amounts to seven, seventy, or seven hundred. 

Tluy do not know what a year is, and, consequently, cannot say when it 
begins and ends. Instead of saying, therefore, "a year ago," or "during this 
y(!ar," the Californians who speak the Waicuri language use the expressions, 
it is alread)/ an amhia past, or, during this ambia, the latter word signifying 
the pitahaya fruit, of which a description has been given on a previous page. 
A space of three years, therefore, is expressed by the term " three pitahayas;" 
yet tliey seldom make use of such phrases, because they hardly ever speak 
among themselves of years, but inerely say, "long ago," or, "not long ago," 
being utterly indiffcu-ent whether two or twenty years have elapsed since the 
occurrence of a certain event. For the same reason they do not speak of 
months, and have not even a name for that S})ace of time. A week, however, 
they call at present ambuja, that is, " a house," or " a place where one resides," 
which name they have now, per antonomasiam, bestowed upon the church 
They are divided into bands, which alternately spend a week at the mission, 
where they have to attend church-service, and thus the week has become 
among tlu^m synonymous with the church. 

When the Californians visit the missionary for any jjurpose, they are per- 
fectly eilent at first, and when asked the cause of their visit, their first answer 
is vara, which means " nothing." Having afterwards delivered their speech. 



THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA. 3Q9 

they sit down, nnapked ; in doing which the women stretch ont their legs, while 
the men cross them in the oriental fashion. The same habits they observe 
also in the church and elsewhere. They salute nobody, such a civility being 
unknown to them, and they have no word to express greeting. If something 
is communicated to them which they do not like, they spit out sideways and 
scratch the ground with their left foot to express their displeasure. 

The men carry everything on their heads ; the women bear loads on their 
backs suspended by ropes that pass around their foreheads, and in order to 
protect the skin from injury, they place between the forehead and the rope a 
piece of untauned deer-hide, which reaches considerably above the head, and 
resembles, from afar, a helmet, or the high head-dress worn by ladies at the 
present time. 

The CaHfornians have a great predilection for singing and dancing,' which 
are always performed together; the first is called ambera did, the latter agenari. 
Their singing is nothing but an inarticulate, unmeaning whispering, murmur- 
ing, or shouting, which every one intonates according to his own inclination, in 
order to express his joy. Their dances consist in a foolish, irregular gesticu- 
lating and jumping, or advancing, retreating, and walking in a circle. Yet, they 
take such delight in these amusements that they spend whole nights in their 
performance, in wliich respect they much resemble Europeans, of whom cer- 
tainly more have killed themselves during Shrovetide and at other times by 
dancing, than by praying and fasting. These pastimes, though innocent in 
themselves, had to be rigidly interdicted, because the grossest disorders and 
vices were openly perpetrated by the natives during the performances ; but it 
is hardly possible to prevent them from indulging in their sports. While 
speaking of these exercises of the natives, I will also mention that they are 
exceedingly good runners. I Avould gladly have yielded up to them my three 
horses for consumption if I had been as swift-footed as they; for, whenever I 
travelled, I became sooner tired Avith riding than they with walking. They 
will run twenty leagues to-day, and return to-morrow to the place from whence 
they started without showing much fatigue. Being oae day on the point of 
setting out on a journey, a little boy expressed a wish to accompany me, and 
when I gave him to understand that the distance was long, the business press- 
ing, and my horse, moreover, very brisk, he replied with great promptness : 
"Thy horse will become tired, but I will not." Another time 1 sent a boy of 
fourteen years with a letter to the neighboring mission, situated six leagues 
from my residence. He started at seven o'clock in the morning, and when 
about a league and a half distant from his place of destination, he met the mis- 
sionary, to whom the letter was addressed, mounted on a good mule, and on his 
way to pay me a visit. The boy turned round and accompanied the missionary, 
with whom he arrived about noon at my mission, having walked within five 
hours a distance of more than nine leagues. 

With boys and girls who have arrived at the age of puberty, with pregnant 
women, new-born children, and women in child-bed, the Oalifornians observed, 
and still secretly observe, certain absurd ceremonies of an unbecoming nature, 
which, for this reason, cannot be described in this book. 

There existed always among the Californiantj individuals of both sexes who 
played the part of sorcerers or conjurers, pretending to possess the power of 
exorcising the devil, whom they never saw; of curing diseases, which they 
never healed; and of producing pitahayas, though they could only eat them. 
Sometimes they went into caverns, and, changing their voices, made the people 
believe that they conversed with some spiritual power. They threatened also 
with famine and diseases, or promised to drive the small-pox and similar plagues 
aAvay and to other places. When these braggarts appeared formerly in their 
gala apparel, they wore long mantles made of human hair, of which the mis- 
sionaries burned a great number in all newly established missions. The object 



390 THE ABOEIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 

of tliese impostors was to obtain their food without the trouble of gaihenug it 
in the fields, for the silly people provided them with the best they could find, 
in order to keep them in good liumor and to enjoy their favor. Their influence 
is very small now-a-days; yet the sick do not cease to place their coxifidence in 
them, as I mentioned in the preceding chapter. 

It might be the proper time now to speak of the form of government and 
the religion of the Oalifornians previous to their conversion to Christianity; 
but neither the one nor the other existed among them. They had no magis- 
trates, no police, and no laws ; idols, temples, religious worship or ceremonies 
were unknown to them, and they neither believed in the true and only God, 
nor adored false deities.* They were all equals, and every one did as he 
pleased, without asking his neighbor or caring for bis opinion, and thus all vices 
and misdeeds remained unpunished, excepting such cases in which the offended 
individual or his relations took the law into their own hands and revenged 
themselves on the guilty party. The different tribes represented by no means 
communities of rational beings, who submit to laws and regulations and obey 
their superiors, but resembled far more herds of wild svi'iue, which run about 
according to their own liking, being together to-day and scattered to-morrow, 
till they meet again by accident at some future time. In one word, the Oali- 
fornians lived, salva venia, as though they had been freethinkers and materi- 
alists, t 

I made diligent inquiries, among those with whom I lived, to ascertain 
whether they had any conception of God, a future life, and their OAvn souls, but 
I never could discover the slightest trace of such a knowledge. Their language 
has no Avords for "God" and "soul," for which reason the missionaries were 
compelled to use in their sermons and religious instructions the Spanish words 
Dios and ahna. It could hardly be otherwise with people who thought of 
nothing but eating and merry-making and never reflected on serious matters, 
but dismissed everything that lay beyond the narrow compass of their concep- 
tions with the phrase aipekeriri, \vh.\c\\ means "who knows thatl" I often 
asked them whether they had never put to themselves the question who might 
be the creator and preserver of the sun, moon, stars, and other objects of nature, 
but was always sent home with a vara, which means "no" in their language. 

CHAPTER IX. HOW THEY LIVED BEFORE AND AFTER THEIR CONVERSION. 

I will now proceed to describe in a few words in what manner the unbap- 
tizcd Oalifornians spent their days. 

In the evening, when they had eaten their fill, they either lay down, or sat 
together and chatted till they Avere tired of talking, or had communicated to 
each other all that they knew for the moment. In the morning they slept until 
hunger forced them to rise. As soon as they awakened, the eating recom- 
menced, if anything remained; and the laughing, talking, and joking were 
likewise resumed. After this morning-prayer, when the sun was already some- 
what high, the men seized their bows and arrows, and the women hitched on 
their yokes and turtle-shells. Some went to the right, others to the left; here 
six, there four, eight, or three, and sometimes one alone, the different bands 
always continuing the laughing and chattering on their way. They looked 
around to espy a mouse, lizard, snake, or perhaps a hare or deer; or tore up 
liere and there a yuka or other root, or cut off some aloes. A part of the day 

* According to Father Piccolo, tbe Californians worshipped the moon ; and Venegas 
mentions the belief in a good and Lad principle as prevailing among the Periciies and 
Cotchiniies. — (IVaitz, Ant/iropulogie iler Nafurv6lker, vol. iv, p. 250.) These statements 
arc emphatically refuted by Baegert in his iirst appendix, p. 3] 5, where he says: "It is not 
true that they worsliippcd the moon, or practiced any kind of idolatry." 

t This is literally his exj>ression. 



THE CALIFOENIAN PENINSULA. : 391 

tlius spent, a pause was made. Tliey sat or lay down in the shade, if tliey 
happened to find any, without, however, allowing their tongues to come to a 
stand-still, or they played or wrestled with each other, to find out who was the 
strongest among them and could throw his adversaries to the ground, in wliich 
sport the women likewise participated. Now they either returned to the camp- 
ing-place of the preceding night, or went a few leagues further, until they came 
to some spot supplied with water, where they commexiced singeing, burning, 
roasting, and pounding the captures they had made during the day. They ate 
as long as they hn,d anything before them and as there was room in their, sto- 
machs, and after a long, childish or indecent talk, they betook themselves to 
rest again. In this manner they lived throughout the whole year, and their 
conversation, if it did not turn on eating, had always some childish trick or 
knavery for its subject. Those of the natives who cannot be put to some use- 
ful labor, while living at the mission, spend their time pretty much in the same 
way. 

Who would expect, under these circumstances, to find a spark of reli- 
gion among the Oalifornians '? It is true, they spoke of the course taken by a 
deer that had escaped them at nightfall Avith an arrow in his side, and which 
they intended to pursue the next morning, but they never speculated on the 
course of the sxm and the other heavenly bodies ; they talked about their pita- 
hayas, even long before they were ripe, yet it never occurred to them to think 
of the Creator of the pitahayas and other productions around them. 

I am not unacquainted with the statement of a certain author, according to 
which one Californian tribe at least was found to possess some knowledge of 
the incarnation of the Son of God and the Holy Trinity; but this is certainly 
an error, considering that such a knowledge could only have been imparted by the 
preachers of the Gospel. The whole matter doubtless originated in a deception 
on the part of the natives, who are very mendacious and inclined to invent 
stories calculated to please the missionary ; while, on the other hand, every one 
may be easily deceived by them who has not yet found out their tricks. It is, 
moreover, a very difficult task to learn anything from them by inquiry; for, 
besides their shameless lies and unnecessarily evasive answers, they entangle, 
from inborn awkwardness, the subject in question in such a pitiable manner, and 
contradict tliemselves so frequently, that the inquirer is very apt to lose his 
patience. A missionary once requested me to find out Avhether a certain N. 
had been married before his baptism, which he received when a grown man, 
with the sister of M. A simple "yes" or "no" would have answered the 
question and decided the matter at once. But the examination lasted about 
three-quarters of an hour, at the end of which I knew just as little as before. 
I wrote down the questions and answers, and sent the protocol to the missionary, 
Avho was no more successfid tlian myself in arriving at the final result, whether 
N. had been the husband of the sister of M. or not. So confused are the minds 
of these Californiaia Hottentots. 

Of baptized Indians, there resided in each mission as many as the missionary 
coiild support and occupy with field-labor, knitting, weaving, and other work. 
Where it was possible to keep a good number of sheep, spiunicg-vfheels and 
looms were in operation, and the people received more frequently new clothing 
than at other stations. In each mission there were also a number of natives 
appointed for special service, namely, a sacristan, a goat-herd, a tender of the 
sick, a catechist, a superintendent, a fiscal, aud two dirty cooks, one for the 
missionary and the other for the Oalifornians. Of the fifteen missions, how- 
ever, there were only four, and these but thinly populated, Avhich could support 
and clothe all their parishioners, and afford them a home during the whole 
year. In the other missionary stations, the whole people Avere divided into 
three or four bands which appeared alternately once in a month at the mission 
md encamped there for a week. 



3L'2 the abokigixal inhabitants of 

Every clay at sunrise they all attended mass, duriuo: -wliicli they said their 
beads. Before and after mass they recited the Christian doctrine, draAvu up 
for them in questions and answers in their own language. An address or ex- 
hortation delivered by the missionary in the same language, and lasting from 
half an hour to three-quarters of an hour, concluded the religious service of 
the morning. This over, breakfast Avas given to those who Avere engaged in 
some -work, while the others T>'ent where they pleased in order to gather their 
daily bread in the lields, if the missionary was unable to provide them with 
food. Towards sunset, a signal with the bell assembled them all again in the 
church to say their beads and the litany of Loretto, or to sing it on Sundays 
and holidays. The bell was not only rung three times a day, as usual, but 
also at three o'clock in the afternoon, in honor of the agony of Christ, and also, 
according to Spanish custom, at eight o'clock in the evening, to pray for the 
faithful departed. "When the week was over, the parishioners returned to their 
respective homes, some three or six, others fifteen or twenty leagues distant 
from the mission. 

On the principal holidays of the year, and also during passion-week, all 
members of the community Avere assembled at the mission, and they received 
at such times, besides their ordinary food, some head of cattle and a good sup- 
ply of Indian corn for consumption; dried figs and raisins AA^ere also given them 
Avithout stint in all missions Avhere such fruit was raised. On these occasions, 
articles of food and apparel Avere likeAvise put up as prizes for those Avho Avcre 
winners in the games they played, or excelled in shooting at the target. 

Fiscals and superintendents, appointed from among the different bands, pre- 
served order within and Avithout the mission. It Avas their duty to lead all 
those Avho were present to the church Avhen the bell rung, and to collect and 
drive in to the mission that portion of the community Avhich had been roaming 
for three Aveeks at large. They Avere to prevent disorders, public scandals and 
knaveries, and to enforce decent behavior and silence during church-service. 
It Avas further their duty to make the converts recite the catechism morning 
and cA-ening, and to say their beads in the fields; to punish slight transgres- 
sions, and to report more serious ofi'ences at the proper place; to take care of 
those Avho fell sick in ihe Avilderness, and to couA^ey them to the mission, &c., 
&c. As a badge of their office they carried a cane which Avaa often silver- 
headed. JMost of them Avere very proud of their dignity, but only a fcAv per- 
formed their duty, for Avhich reason they received their flogging ofteuer than 
the rest, and hatl to bear the blows and cuffs, Avhich it Avas their duty to admin- 
ister to others.* Tliere Avere also catechists appointed upon whom it Avas in- 
cumbent to lead the prayers, and to giA'e instruction to the most ignorant of 
the catechumens. 

EA'cry day, in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, either the mis- 
sionary himself, or some one appointed by him, distributed boiled Avheat or 
maize to the pregnant Avomen, the blind, old and infirm, if he Avas unable to 
feed them all; and for those Avho Avere sick, meat AA-as cooked at least once 
every day. When any Avork Avas done, all engaged in it Avere fed three times 
a day. Yet their labor Avas by no means severe. Would to God it had been 



* On a proccdiuj:^ pag-o tlic author gives, not exactly in the proper place, the followin"- 
particulars eouceniiiig the penal law established among the Calil'ornians : "In cases of 
extraordinary crimes, tiio puuishnient of the natives was lixcd by the loyal ofHcer Avho com- 
manded the Caiifornian sqiiadren; common misdeeds fe:l within the jurisdiction of the 
corporal of the soldiers stationed in each mission. Capital punishment, by shooting, was 
only resorted to in cases of murder ; all other transgressions were either punished 'by a 
number of lashes administered with a leather whip on the bare skin of the culprit, or liis 
feet put in irons lor some days, weeks, or monihs. As to ecclesiastical punishments, the 
Koman pontiffs did not think proper to introduce them among the Americans, and tines were 
likewise out of the question, in accordance Avith the old German proverb: 'Where there is 
nothmg, the emperor iias no rights.' " 



'' THE CALIFOP.NIAN PENINSULA. o93 

possible to make tliem work like tlie country people and mechanics in Germany^ 
How many knaveries and vices would liave been avoided every day ! The 
work always commenced late, and ceased before the sun was down. At noon 
they rested two hours. It is certain that six laborers in Germany do more 
work in six days than twelve Oalifornians in twelve days. And, moreover, all 
their labor was tor their own or then- countrymen's benefit ; for the missionary 
derived nothing but care and trouble from it, and might easily have obtained 
elsewhere the few bushels of wheat or Indian corn which he needed for his 
own consumption. 

For the rest, the missionary was the only refuge of the small and grown, 
the sick and the healthy, and he had to bear the burden of all concerns of the 
mission. Of him the natives requested food and medicine, clothing and shoes, 
tobacco for smoking and snuffing, and tools, if they intended to manufacture 
anything. He had to settle their quarrels, to take charge of the infants who 
had lost their parents, to provide for the sick, and to appoint watchers#by the 
dying. I have known missionaries who seldom said their office while the sun 
shone, so much were they harassed the whole day. Fathers Ugarte and Druet, 
for instance, worked in the fields, exposed to the hot sun, like the poorest 
peasants or journeymen, standing in the water and mire up to their knees. 
Orhers carried on the trades of tailors and carpenters, masons, brick-burners 
and saddlers ; they acted as physicians, surgeons, organists, and schoolmasters, 
and had to perform the duties of parents, guardians, wardens of hospitals, 
beadles, and many others. The intelligent reader, who has so far become 
acquainted with the condition of the country and its inhabitants, can easily 
perceive that these exertions on the part of the missionaries were dictated by 
necessity, and he will, also, be enabled to imagine in what their rents and reve- 
nues, in California not only, but in a hundred other places of America, may 
have consisted. 

CHAPTER X. THEIR LANGUAGE. 

The account thus far given of the character and the habits of the Oalifor- 
nians will, to a certain extent, enable the reader to form, in advance, an esti- 
mate of their language. A people without laws and religion, who think and 
speak of nothing but their food and other things which they have in common 
with animals, who carry on no trade, and entertain no friendly intercourse with 
neighboring tribes, that consist, like themselves, only of a few hundred souls 
and always remain within their own small district, Aviierc nothing is to be seen 
but thorns, rocks, game, and vermin, such a people, I say, cannot be expected 
to speak an elegant and rich language. A man of sixty years ran away from 
my mission with his son, a boy of about six years, and they spent five years 
alone in the Oalifornian wilderness, when they were found and brought back to 
the mission. Every one can imagine how and on what .subjects these tA\^o her- 
mits may have conversed in their daily intercourse. The returned lad, who 
had then nearly reached his twelfth year, was hardly able to speak three words 
in succession, and excepting water, wood, fire, snake, mouse, and the like, he 
could name nothing, insomuch that he was called the dull and dumb Pablo, or 
Paul, by his own countrymen. The story of this boy may almost be applied 
to the whole people. 

Leaving aside a great many dialects and offshoots, six entirely different 
languages have thus far been discovered in California, namely, the Laijmdna, 
about the mission of Loreto ; the Cotshimi, in the mission of St. Xavier, and 
others towards the north ; the Utshiti and the Perlciia in the south ; the still 
unknown language spoken by the nations whom Father Linck visited in 1766, 
during his exploration of the northern part of the peninsula ; and, lastly, the 
Wa^icuri language, of which I am now about to treat, having learned as much 
of it as was necessary for conversing with the natives. 



J94 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITAIs^TS OF 

The Waicuri language* is of an exceedingly barbarous and rude description, 
)y wbicli rudeness, however, I do not mean a bard pronunciation or a suc- 
•ession of many consonants, for these qualities do not form the essence of a 
ano-uage, but merely its outward character or conformation, and are more or 
ess imaginary, as it were, among those who are unacquainted with it. It is 
well known that Italians and Frenchmen consider the German language as 
barbarous, while the Germans have the like opinion of the Bohemian or Polish 
tano-uages ; but these impressions cease as soon as the Frenchmen or Italians 
yan converse in German, and the Germans in the Bohemian or Polish tongues. 

In the Waicuri alphabet the letters o,/^,Z,a;, 2r are wanting, also the s, except- 
no- in the tsk ; but the great deficiency of the language consists in the total 
ibsence of a great many words, the want of which would seem to render it 
almost impossible for reasonable beings to converse with each other and to 
receive instruction in the Christian religion. For whatever is not substantial, 
and caanot be seen or touched or otherwise perceived by the senses, has no 
name in the Waicuri language. There are no nouns whatever for expressing 
virtues, vices, or the different dispositions of the mind, and there exist only a 
few adjectives of this class, namely, 7nerri/, sad, lazy, and angry, all of which 
merely denote such humors as can be perceived in a person's face. All terms 
relating to rational human and civil life, and a multitude of words for sigrii- 
fying other objects, are entirely wanting, so that it would be a vain trouble to 
look in the Waicuri vocabulary for the following expressions : life, death, 
tocatlier, ti7ne, cold, heat, world, rain, understanding, will, memory, knowledge 
honor, decency, consolation, peace, quarrel, memher, joy, imputation, mind, 
friend, friendship, truth, haslfulness, enmity, faith, love, hope, wish, desire, hate, 
anger, gratitude, p>aticnce, meehicss, envy, industry, virtue, vice, beauty, shape, 
sickness, danger, fear, occasion, thing, punishment, doubt, servant, master, vir- 
gin, judgment, suspicion, happiness, happy, reasonable, baslful, decent, clever, 
moderate, fious, obedient, rich, poor, young, old, agreeable, lovely, friendly, 
haf, quick, deep, round, contended, more, less, to greet, to thank, to punish, to 
be sdent, to promenade, to complain, to loorship, to doubt, to buy, to flatter, to 
caress, to persecute, to dwell, to breathe, to imagine, to idle, to insult, to console, 
to live, and a thousand words of a similar character.! 

The word living they have neither as a noun nor as a verb, neither in a 
natural nor a moral sense; but only the adjective a/a-e. Bad, narrow, short, 
distant, little, &c., they cannot express unless by adding the negation ja or 
raX to the words good, wide, long, near, and much. They have particular 
words for signifying an old man, an old tvoman, a young man, a young woman, 
and so forth ; but the terms old or young do not exist in their language. The 
Waicuri contains only four words for denoting the different colors, insomuch 
that the natives cannot distinguish in their speech yellow from red, blue from 
green, black from brown, white from ash-colored, &c. 

Now let the reader imagine how difficult it is to impart to the Californians 
any knowledge of European affairs ; to interpret for them some article from a 

* Waicuri. Father Begert's very cmious account of the language is contained on pages 
177-194 of the "Nachrichten." It comprises, besides the general remarks on the char- 
acteristic features of the language, the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, both with literal and 
free translations, and the conjugation of a verb. — W. W. T. — The, Literature of American 
Aboriirinal Lamruages, hy Hermann E. Ludcicig, with Additions and Corrections, by Professor 
WiUiain W. Turner. Loudon, 1858, p. 24.5. 

It may be remarked in this place, that the author's name is printed in three different ways, 
viz: Beer, Bescrt, and Baegert. In writing ^^ Baegert," I follow Waitz, who probably 
gives the correct speUing of the name. 

t The author adds; "And all nouns in general that end in German in heit, ktit, niss, 
ung, and srhaft.'^ 

i it will hardly bo necessary to mention that the Waicuri words must be pronounced as 
German. Excepting the tsch, which is replaced by the equivalent English sound tsh, the 
orthography of the author has strictly been preserved. 



THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA. 395 I 

Madrid newspaper, if one happens to be seen in California a year or more after 
its appearance ; or to enlarge upon the merits of the Saints, and to explain, for 
instance, how they renounced all vanity, forsaking princely possessions and 
even kingdoms, and distributed their property among the poor ; how their lives 
were spent in voluntary poverty, chastity, and humility ; and, further, that 
they subjected themselves for years to the severest penances, conquered their ' 
passions and subdued their inclinations j that they devoted daily eight and' 
more hours to prayer and contemplation ; that they disregarded worldly con- \ 
cerns and even their own lives ; slept on the bare ground, and abstained from ' 
meat and wine. For want of words, the poor preacher has to place his iiuger 
to his mouth in order to illustrate eating ; and concerning the comforts of life, 
every Californian will tell him that he never, as long as he lived, slept in a 
bed ; that he is entirely unacquainted with such articles as breadj wine, and 
beer ; and that, excepting rats and mice, he hardly ever tasted any kind of 
meat. 

The above-mentioned and a great many other words are wanting in the 
Waicuri language, simply because those w)io speak it never use these terms; 
their almost animal-like existence and narrow compass of ideas rendering the 
application of such expressions superfluous. But concerning heat or cold, rain 
or sickness, they content themselves by saying, it is warm, it rains, this or 
that person is sick, and nothing else. Sentences like the following : " The; 
sickness has much weakened a certain person;" or, "cold is less endurable 
than heat;" or, " after rain follows sunshine," &c., are certainly very simjjle 
in themselves and current among all peasants in Europe, yet infinitely above 
the range of thought and speech of the Californians. 

They cannot express the degrees of relationship, for instance, ya^J/ier, mother, 
son, brother, nor the parts of the human body, nor many other words, such as 
word or speech, breath, pain, comrade, ^c, singly and without prefixing the 
possessive pronouns my, thy, our, Sfc. They say, therefore, beddre, eddre, tidre, 
kepeddre, &fc., that is, my, tJiy,his, our father ; and hecue, ecue, tictic, kepecue, 
that is, my, thy, his, our mother. So also mapd, etapd, tapd, that is, my, thy, 
his forehead. Minamu, einamii, tinamii, that is, my, thy, his nose; hetania, 
etania, tishania, my, thy, his word; inenembeu, enembeu, tenembeu, my, tJiy, his 
pain, ?^c. But no Californian who speaks the Waicuri is able to say what the 
words are, cue, apd, namu, tania, and nembeu, express, for father, forehead, 
roord, ox pain are significations which they never thought of using in a general 
sense, and far less has it ever entered their minds to speak, for instance, of the 
duties of a father, of a gloomy, a serene, a narrow or large forehead, or to make 
a long, a flat or an aquiline nose the subject of their conversation. 

The Waicuri language is exceedingly deficient in prepositions and conjunc- 
tions. Of the first class of words, there exist only two that have a definite aj)- 
plication, namely, tina, on or upon, and deve or tipitsheu, which is equivalent 
to the phrase on account of or for (propter.) The prepositions out, in, before, 
through, with, for (pro,) against, by, 6fc., are either represented by the words 
me,pe, and te, which have all the same meaning, or they are not expressed at 
all. The article is entirely wanting, and the nouns are not declined. The 
conjunction tsliie, and, is always placed after the words which it has to connect ; 
the other conjunctions, such as that, but, than, because, neither, nor, yet, as, 
though, &^c., are all wanting, and likewise the relative pronouns which -Avid loho, 
so frequently occurring in other languages. They have no adverbs derived 
from adjectives, and hardly any of the primitive class. The comparative and 
superlative cannot be expressed, and even the words more and less do not exist, 
and instead of saying, therefore, Peter is taller and has more than Paul, they 
have to use the paraphrase, Peter is tall and has much, Paid is not tall and 
has not much. 



»9G THE ABORIGINAL IXHABITANTS OF 

Passing to tlie verbs, I will mention tliat these have neither a conjunctive 
or a mandative mood, and only an imperfect optative mood, and that the pas- 
ivc form h wanting as well as the reciprocal verb, which is used in the Spanish 
ud French languages. The verbs have only one mood and three tenses, viz., 
, present, preterit, and future, which are formed by affixing certain endings 
i n the root of the verb, namely, in the present re or reke ; in the preterit rikiri, 
vjere, raupe, or ruupcre ; in the future 7nc, nieje or eneme.* 

Sometimes the natives prefix the syllable kit or a k alone to the plural of the 
"erb, or change its first syllable iu-to kii ; for example, inahake, to fight, umutib, 
remember, jake, to chat; but ktipiabake, kumutu, and kudke, when they 
■vill indicate that there are several persons fighting, remembering, or chatting. A 
.'ew of their verbs have also a preterit passive participle; for example, tshipake, 
'0 beat, tshipitshurre, a person that has been beaten, plural kutipau. Some 
louns and adjectives are likewise subject to changes in the plural number, as, 
or instance, anal, woman, kdnal, women ; entuditu, ugly or bad, and entudi- 
"dmma,\ bad or ugly women. Be expresses I, me (mihi,) ?«e (me)and»?3/; 
ei means thou, thee (tibi,) thee (te) and thy, and so on through all the personal 
and possessive pronouns. Yet becun or beticun signifies also my, and ccitn or 
elticun, thy. 

They know nothing of metaphors, for which reason the phrase blessed is the 
fruit of thy ivomb in the "Hail Mary" has simply been replaced by thy child. 
(3n the other hand they are very ingenious in giving names to objects with 
which they were before unacquainted, calling, for instance, the door, mouth ; 
bread, the light; iron, the heavy ; wine, bad loatcr ; a gun, bow ; the function- 
aries of the mission, bearers of canes ; the Spanish captain, wild or cruel ; oxen 
and cows, deer ; horses and mules titsJienu-tshd, that is, child of a ivise mother ; 
and the missionary, in speaking of or to him, tid-pa-tu, which means one who 
has his house in the north, Sfc. 

In order to converse in such a barbarous and poor language, a European has 
to change, as it were, his whole nature and to become almost a Calfornian him- 
self; but in teaching the natives the doctrines of the Christian religion in their 
own language, he is very often compelled to make use of paraphrases which, 
when translated into a civilized language, must have an odd and sometimes 
even ridiculous sound to Europeans; and as the reader may, perhaps, be curi- 
ous to know a little more of this peculiar language, I will give as specimens 
two articles from the Waicuri catechism, namely, the Lord's Prayer and the 
Creed, each with a double interpretation, and also the whole conjugation of the 
verb amukiri. X 

Concerning this Californian Lord's Prayer and Creed and their interpreta- 
tions, the reader will take notice of the following explanatory remarks : 

1. The first translation, which stands immediately under the Californian text, 
is perfectly literal and shows the structure of the Waicuri language. This 
version must necessarily produce a bad effect upon European ears; whereas the 
second translation, which is less literal and therefore more intelligible, may serve 
to convey an idea how the Waicuri text sounds to the natives themselves as 
well as to those who understand their idiom, and have become accustomed, by 
long practice, to the awkward position of the words, the absence of relative 
pronouns and prepositions, and the other deficiencies of the language. 

* From the conjugation of Ihe verb amukiri, given at the end of this chapter, it is evident 
that these endings have no reference to the person or number of the tenses, but may be indif- 
R'lently employi'd. 

t ThLs compound word illustrates well the polysynthetic character of the Waicuri language. 

\ We cannot be too thankful to Father Baegert, who, with all his oddity and eccentricity, 
has had the philological taste to preserve and explain a specimen of the Waicuri — a favor 
the greater, as neitlier Veuegas nor the polished Clavigero has preserved any specimen of 
a Calitbinian language, much less a verb in full. 



THE CALIFOENIAN PENINSULA. 397 

2. The words lioly, churcJi, God, ghost, communion, grace, ivill, cross, virgin, 
name, hell, kingdom, bread, trespass, temptation, creator, forgiveness, life, resur- 
rection, Lord, daily. Almighty, third, ^., are wanting in the Waicuri language, 
and have either been paraphrased, when it was feasible, .or replaced by corre- 
sponding Spanish words, in order to avoid too lengthy and not very intelligible 
sentences. Some words that could be omitted without materially changing the 
sense, such as daily in the Lord's Pr;iyer, and Liord in the Creed, have been 
entirely dropped. 

3. The sentence "he shall come to judge the living and the dead" could not 
be literally translated, because the Calitbrnians are unable to comprehend the 
moral and theological sensQ of that passage and others of similar character. 
Nor could they be taught in the Creed that the flesh will live again, for by 
"flesh" they understand nothing but the meat of deer and cows. They would 
laugh at the idea that men were also flesh, and consequently be led to believe in 
the resurrection of deer and cows, when they were told that the flesh will rise 
again on the day of judgment. 

4. In the Waicuri language Heaven is usually called ae?ia, that is, the above ; 
and also, but less frequently, tckerekddateviha, which means curved or arched 
earth or land, because the firmament resembles a vault or arch. Hell they have 
been taught to call the fire that never expires ; but this expression is not em- 
ployed in the 'Waicuri Creed. 

The Lord's Prayer in the Waicuri language, with a literal translation, showing the exact 

succession of the words. 

Kepe-ddre tekerekAdateraba dai, ei-ri akatuike-pu-me, tsh^karrake- 

Our Father arched earth thou art, thee O ! that ackuowledge all will, praise 

pu-uie ti tshie: ecuu gracia — ri atiime cate tekerekadateniba tshie; ei- 

all will people and : thy grace O ! that have will we arched earth and ; thee 

ri jebarrakeme ti pu jaupe dateruba, pile ei jebarrakere, aeua kea ; kepeciln buo 
O ! that obey will men all here earth, as thee obey, above are ; our food 
kope ken jatiipe untairi ; cate kuitsharrakd tei tshie kepeciln atacaoiara, p^e kuitsharrakere 

us gnve this day ; us forgive thou and our evil, as forgive 

cat^ tshie c^vape atukiara kepetujake ; cate tikakamba tei tshie cuvumer^ cate ue 
we also they evil us do ; us help thou and desire will not we anything 

atukiara; kepe kakunja pe atacara tshie. Amen. 
evil; us protect frorh evil and. x\.meu. 

The same in a less literal translation. 

Our Father, Thou art in the Heaven; O that all people may acknowledge and praise Thee ! 
O that we may have Thy grace and Heaven ! O that all men may obey Thee here in the 
world as obey Thee who are aijove! Our food give us on this day, and forgive us our sins, 
as we also forgive those who do us harm ; and help us that we may not desire anything 
sinful, and protect us from evil. Amen. 

The twelve articles of the Creed literally translated. 

Irim^njure p6 Dios Tiare ureti-pu-pudueue, tA,upe me buartl uretlriklri 

I believe in God his Father make all can, this of nothing has made 

lekerekadatemb^ atemba tshie. Irinianjure t.sliie po ,)csu Christo titshAnu ibe te 

arched earth earth and. I believe also in Jesus Christ his son alone — 

tidre, etc punjere pe Espiritu Santo, pedara tshie mo Santa Maria virgen. 

his lather's, man made by Holy Ghost, born and of Saint Mary virgin. 

Iriminjure tshie tau-verepe Jesii Christo hibitsherikiri tenembell apanne iebitsheue 

I believe also this same Jesus Christ sirffered has his pain grer^t commanding 
temme pe Judea Pontio Pilato; kutikiivre rikiri tina cruz, pibikiri, kejcniiita rikiri 
being in Jxidea Pontius Pilate ; extended been on cross, has died, under earth buried is 
tshie; keritsheu atemba biinjii; meaktinju untdiri tip6-tshetshutipe rikiri; tshukiti 
also ; gone down earth below ; throe days alive again has been ; gone up 

tekerekadatemba, penekk tshie me titshnkcta te Dios tiare ureii-pii-pudueue, 
arched earth, sits also his right hand of God his father make all can, 



398 



THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 



ai;ii'i'"ovo tcnlvfc iiteiiri-Kii-moje atac.4mma atacilmraai-a ti tsliio. Iriindnjure pe 
fViiin tlu'uco ivwanl prive come will good bad men also. I believe iu 

Jjspiriiu Sii'ili) ; iriindnjure epi Santa Iglesia cat.holica, communion te kuujnkardU 
Holy (ihost ; I believe there is Holy Catholic Church, comuiunion — washed 
ti tsliie. Iriuidnjure kuitshavakerae Dios kumbdte-didi-re, kuteve-didi-re ti t.shie 
.!-;o. I believe forgive will God hate well, confess well men and 
icdmmara pdnne pu. Irimdnjuro tshie tipe tshetshutipe me tibikiu ti pil; 
bad great all. I believe and alive again will be dead people all : 

pe del meje tucdva tshie. Amen. 
'■ ive ever will be the same ako. Amen. 

The same less literally translated. 

I believe in God the Father, who can make everything ; "he has made of nothing Heaven 
and earth. I believe also iu Jesus Christ, the only Son of his Father ; was made man by 
the Holy Ghost; was born of the Virgin Maiy. I believe also this same Jesus Christ 
snffeied great pain while Pontius Pilate was commanding in Judea: he was extended on 
tlie cross ; he died and was buried : he went below the earth ; he became alive again in three 
days; lie went up to Heaven; he sitteth at the right hand of God his Father, who can make 
everything; he will come from thence to give rewards to the good and bad. I believe in the 
Holy Ghost; I believe there is a Holy Catholic Church and communion of the baptized. I 
believe God will forgive those men who tlioroughly hate and thoroughly confess all their 
great sins. I believe also all dead men will become alive again, and then they will be 
always alive. Amen. 

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB AMUKIRI, TO PLAY 

Present. 



Sing. be I^ plij) ^-c. 

ei thou I 
tutaii he [ . 

Plur. cate we f ' 
pete you | 

tucdva they J 



• amukiri — re 



Preterit. 



Sing. 



Plur 



ei 

tutau 

cat^ 

pete 

tucdva 



I^ 

thou 

he 

we 

you 

they J 



have played, &c. 

amukiri — rildri 
( — rujere 
or<^ — raupe 
( — raupere 



Future^ 



Sing, 



Plur. 



ei 

tutau 

catd 

pete 

tucdva 



I'\ will play, &c. 

thou I 

he 1 amukiri — me 

we f < — meje 

or < . •' 
you I — enema 

theyj 



Imperative. 

Sing, amukiri tci, play thou. 
Plur. amukiri tu, play you. 



Optative. 

Sing. b6— ri ^ f Would to 

ei — ri God, I, 

tutau — ri 1 amukiri — rikirikdra I thou, he, 

Pltir. cate — ri f or — rujerdra ) we, you, they 

pete — ri | had not 

tucdva — ri J l^played ! 



Note on the Cora and Wa'icuri languages, by Francisco Flinentcl.* 

Father Ortega refers in various places to the grammar of the Cora language which he in 
tended to write ; but the work, if it was ever written, has been lost, .since there is no mention 
of it, and it is unknown to bibliographers. 

The Cora dialect is known also by the names of Chora, Chota, and Nayarita. This last 
name comes from the faet that it was spoken, and is still so, in the mountains of Nayarit in 
the State of Jalisco. There is another idiom called Cora in California, which is a dialect of 
the Guaicura or Vaicura, differing from that spoken in Jalisco. I have compared various 
words of the Guaicura and the Cora of Jalisco, and have found them entirely different. 

Examples. 




Vaicura. 



Father ... 

Thou art 

All 

Man 

And 

Here 

Earth or world 

Above 

Food 

To giA'e 

Day 

To pardon 

How 

Obedient 

No 

Something 

I 

Thou 

He 

We 

You 

They 

My 

Thy 

His 

Our 

For 

Upon 

Game 

Son 

Nose 



Tiyaoppa 

Petehbe 

Manaicmic 

Tevit 

Acta 

Yye 

Chianacat 

Mehtevi 

Gueahti 

Ta 

Xeucat 

Ataouniri 

Eupat 

Teatzahuateacame 

Ehe 

Titac 

Neapue, nea 

Apue, ap 

Aehpu, aehp 

Ytean 

Ammo, an 

Aehmo, aehm 

Ne 

A 

Ana, hua 

Ta 

Keme 

Apoan 

Muaitec 

Tiperie, tiyaoh .. 
Tzoriti 



Are. 

Dal. 

Pu. 

Ti. 

Tschie. 

Taupe. 

Datemba. 

Aena. 

Bue. 

Ken. 

Untairi. 

Kuitscha. 

Pae. 

Tebarrakere. 

Pta. 

Ue. 

Be. 

EL 

Tutau. 

Cate. 

Peti. 

Tucava. 

Be, me, mi, m. 

Ei, e, et. 

Ti, te, t. 

Kepe. 

Deve. 

Tina. 

Amukiri. 

Tschanu. 

Namu. 



Note relative to the Author. — The only facts concerning the author, which I was 
able to obtain while engaged in translating his work, are contained in De Backer^s Jiihlio- 
thcquc dcs Ecrivains de la Compagnie de JSsus, Liege 1859. Vol. v, p. 28. 

The author, whose name is given here as Jacob Begert, was born (17] 7) at Schlettstadt 
(Upper Khine.) lie went to California in 1751 and preached the Gospel there till the decree 
of Charles III tore the Jesuits from their missions. On returning to Europe, he retired to 
Neuburg in Bavaria, where he died in the month of December, 1772. Clavigero stands as 
authority for ascribing the " Nachrichten" to him, and it is also mentioned that the "Berlin- 
'sche litterarische Wochenblatt," (1777, vol. ii, p. 625,) contains an extract of the work. 
Meusel's large work on German authors, entitled "Das gelehi'te Deutschlaud," is given as 
the source from which these statements ar^ derived. 

The "Nachrichten" appeared first in print in 1772, the same year in which the author died, 
who consequently could have survived the publication of his work only a short time. The 
copy in my hands, which was printed in 1773, is not properly a second edition, but merely a 
reprint, in wliich the most glaring typographical errors are corrected. 



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